Resident Evil: Nightmare City
by Ryo Bondiko
Summary: The virusoutbreak in Raccoon reaches the Raccon High School while the students inside do not have the slightest idea of what is going on outside. At least until the school is attacked. Now five normal or almost normal students will have to make their way
1. prelude

-1Resident Evil: Nightmare City

Prelude:

Somewhere in the outskirts of a city located in the mountains of Arklay, where this whole disaster began, lies a house. A small house with an even smaller backyard, a veranda and one of these self-made doghouses in front of it, although the family living here did not even have a dog. It is this house where our story shall start.

"Another one of this stupid mornings in this stupid city…", Alan moaned into his pillows. The alarm had pretty roughly told him that it was time for school, at a godless 6.30. He recently moved into this city, or to be precise his father WAS moved here by the corporation he was working for, and took Alan and his whole family with him.

His family, that were His mother Katherine Riley, his sister Alice Riley, his father Thomas Riley and himself Alan Riley, 18 years, sentenced to live and die in this cow-village.

When his father was ordered to move here he didn't even try to reject, as if he was threatened with a gun, or something.

Well, what did he expect? His father was a weak loser.

Cursing silently he fought himself out of the blankets and slowly shuffled into his bathroom.

A short shower and some teeth-brushing later he stood in front of the mirror with only his boxers on and looked at himself. His eyes starred back with their icy blue while his steel-blond wet hair fell into his face like a curtain.

Today was his first day at the new High School and he really was not happy about that.

He slowly walked out of the bathroom and snatched the clothes he wanted to wear. Some Stone-washed jeans and a black shirt with red ornaments, nothing special, but he liked that kind of cloth: Simple and inconspicuous.

Taking a last deep breath he walked out of his room and down the stairs of the house. He shared this storey with his fourteen years-old sister while their parents lived at the ground floor.

In the kitchen the rest of his family already sat at the small round table and had breakfast.

His father had the newspaper spread in front of him, as if he was hiding himself from the outside world. Directly next to him Alan's sister, Alice, was drinking from a large cup of coffee (she was a bit young for that, but their parents did not mind) and was obviously doing some homework which she needed for today.

Katherine Riley, his mother, just loaded some pancakes from a pan on his plate. It were at least five to seven of the pretty fatty dough-wafers, he wouldn't be able to finish only half of them.

"Oh morning, darling", his mother chirped.

"Morning…", Alan replied silently. He did not know where her mother got this happy attitude from. He was still angry with his father.

"There wasn't a paper today, had to read that old one and radio only plays music. What a crap", Thomas Riley said behind his paper-wall, without even greeting Alan.

"Uh… huh", the blonde boy said disinterested while he stabbed some of the pancakes with his fork and stuffed them into his mouth.

"Well, seems like that cannibal-group got another one. But you surely missed that, don't you?", he added a sneer to his voice.

"Must have", Alan mumbled with a full mouth. Actually he exactly knew what his father was talking about, but he wasn't interested in a chat with him He really hated his father for what he had done to him.

"See, that is why you always got these bad grades in your old school. You miss the most important stuff", the blond old man said.

Alan saved an appropriate answer and stood up. He had quite a long way to school and did not want to have to hurry.

"Hope you have a nice day, bro", Alice said sarcastically. She wouldn't have to start school until next week, because there was a short vacation at her new Junior High right now. Her lips formed an evil grin.

"Yeah, go stuff your bra…", Alan replied coldly.

The young girl's chin fell down while Alan already headed for the front door.

"Alan!", his father shouted. "Get back here, you will apologize to your sister now!"

He did not even think of doing that, instead he grabbed his skateboard and his backpack and walked through the door. His mother chirped something like: "Be careful on your way" after him while he already stepped on his board and let it roll down the shallow hill towards the inner parts of the city.

Inside of the house Thomas Riley laid the paper on the table showing his face again. Alan always described him as a man with "the face of a hawk and the brains of a dove". That was a fitting description for this man. But actually his stabbing eyes and his hard attitude was only for show, he never used somewhere else then in his family.

"I will have to talk to him tonight, he still is so aggressive", Thomas said into his wife's direction. Katherine sighed. "He is a good boy. You shouldn't be so mad at him."

"You're too soft. He needs a hard hand, nothing more, nothing less." Alan's father stood up and took his keys from a kitchen-table.

"I have to go now, got to be on time today."

"Yeah, see you tonight, honey", Katherine said and her husband walked through the door.

The small garage on the right side of the house perfectly fitted into this white house and the old Dodge in it completed the picture of the perfect neighborhood.

This house was one of the thousands that belonged to the corp. he was working for and was far away from the inner parts of the city. He was really thankful for this little gift, which protected him from the crowded streets and dirt in the uptown.

Thomas Riley climbed into his car and drove out of the entrance passing his perfectly cut meadow on the way.

With the car he was much quicker then his son and got to his firm in only ten minutes, he did not even notice that there were only very few people on the streets. He already was thinking of the transport. He had to get a very important cargo delivered from his firm to another factory in the uptown today. If he would get this job done properly he'd be promoted, if not…well…his corporation was not good in handling incompetence. Most likely he'd lose his job. Trying to calm his nervously trembling hands he drove onto the gigantic parking-lot of his company. The logo of the corp. was placed on the roof of the big building and threw a shadow on the parking lot.

A red and white umbrella.

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When you follow the Ennerdale Street to the east you will eventually come to the corner where it is crossed by the Davies Street. At this corner you will already see the Raccoon High school.

The building was a big grey cube with windows. The only thing that made it at least a bit friendlier was the small green square behind the school. Ten blooming oak-trees stood in two rows on some grass and granted some shadow for the students on hot days.

On this pretty cool morning it actually was not necessary to use this shadow, but still one sole person in a muscle-shirt and blue-jeans leaned on one of the trees and tried to cover himself from the sun.

The bell for the first lesson would ring soon and then he'd have to go into the building through the rays of that big yellow monster.

His name was Rick Misamoto and he hated the sun.

He was partly Japanese and his skin was burned much quicker then that of any normal American. Well, at least he thought that it had to do with his genes; it was rather unlikely that this was correct.

His hate against the sun actually started five years ago, after his father had been killed.

In that night his father and Rick had just watched a new samurai-movie in cinema and walked through the warm night of that summer. When these three guys appeared Rick was startled and unable to react. They were from a street-gang and wanted all of their money.

Rick's father pulled the boy behind himself. He was a great fighter and even the master of a Kendo-Dojo, but against a semiautomatic he was chanceless. The bullets pierced his chest and heart before he could even make one move. Rick could not understand it until he fell to the ground and remained there. The only twelve year old boy stared at his fathers dead body and then at his murderers. They were already gone leaving the boy next to his father's bloody corpse. He did not even see their faces; the police never found them.

With his father's murderers nothing but anonymous shadows, Rick needed something else he could hate. And he chose the big smiling fireball high in the air that was always making fun of him.

Anyway, after his father had been buried his mother took the boy back to her home-country. She had only been in Japan, because she was an archeologist and wanted to dig some stuff up (at least she always told that to Rick) and on her journey through the country she met her father, that's the story.

Well, and now he was here, five years older and still pissed by the sun.

"Hey, Rick!"

Alright, the sun was not the only thing that pissed him off.

"What?"

A girl stood in front of him, she had long black hair and green eyes. Her clothes were made by a famous designer and most likely more expensive then Rick's whole cupboard. The girl's name was Samantha Douglas and she was openly called a shrew, but for Rick this was far too friendly.

Rick had no idea where she had been coming from, but he'd have to deal with her now. She bent down, looking at him with a cruel smile. "Why are you always sitting here?", she asked in a very friendly tone, far too friendly.

"How does it concern you?"

"Well, the girls and me, we wondered, if you might have a symbiosis with this tree?" She must have thought that one really funny, because she was laughing manically along with her fan-club, which had just shown up behind her.

Rick for his part could not find anything funny plus she was annoying him with these stupid jokes for ages now. He was so fed up with it.

"Buzz Off!", Rick shouted clenching his fists. The girls giggled even more and ran into the building through the back-entrance. He almost lost it and would have hit her, but the bell had saved the stupid snobby girl. The first lesson would start now.

Rick covered his eyes and ran into the school as quick as he could. The sunbeams felt like needles.

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"Really I don't have any money, I swear", the small brown haired boy sniffed shivering. He was surrounded by a group of three boys, who were all twice as tall (and wide) as him.

"Hope ya didn't forget our deal, eh? Thirty dollars a week and ya'll live. Otherwise yer dead meat", the fattest boy shouted and his voice was reflected by the walls of the boys room, where this little chat was taking place.

"No, I haven't forgotten, Edge, really!"

The small boy, whose name was Ben Carter, had always have to deal with these kinds of guys: In Elementary, Junior High and now even here. You could find guys like them everywhere and they unluckily found Ben everywhere, too. He had always been the weakest, the worst in sports and the best in all other subjects. Exactly that was the combination that boys like "Edge" always liked to pick on.

Edge gave him a hit, which drove Ben against another wall and made him moan in pain. "Then ya'll better get me that money tomorrow, or else…", the fat guy grinned evilly and swung his fist.

When he finally was alone again, Ben tried to sit up and held his hurting head.

"Oh man"

Well, he was in trouble now. He did not have the money and no one to ask for it.

His parents could surely give it to him, but they did not know of his problems in school and if they would know it, it would only worsen the situation.

His mother was like a hen, she always kept him away from any harm, meaning that he was never allowed to do any sports where you could get hurt and he, of course, was not allowed to see movies with violence or play the most popular video-games.

Thus, at least partly, it was her fault that he had become such a weakling.

Anyway, he had to get that money to live through another week. With this strategy he had survived since elementary. But now he spend all of his money on the new laptop he kept save in his locker. Maybe, he could cut somebody's meadow this afternoon, or something like that. If that wouldn't work…he did not even want to think of that. The boy called "Edge" had already brought some people into the hospital and that name referred to a big knife he was always carrying. At least that was the rumor.

Standing up he heard the bell ringing. It was time for the lessons.

He left the restroom in thoughts and almost hit the floor again. A running-by boy hit Ben's shoulder with such a force that he was thrown against one of the locker-rows and moaned in pain again. He looked after that guy and saw wild blonde hair and a black shirt with red ornaments. That guy did not even try to apologize… still, Ben was far less angry then he was jealous. He wanted to be as cool as that boy. Even through the shirt he could see his biceps-muscles.

"That guy…", he whispered. While he had never learned how you could fight against people like Edge, this guy would never be controlled. He would fight and defeat them. If Ben could be like that his life would be different, he would be free, free of his weak body, free of his hen-mother. But that seemed impossible.

He shook his head quickly to clear it from these stupid thoughts. The lesson would start very soon.

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When Diana King gave her father a kiss for goodbye she knew that she would be too late for class today, the first lesson should be running for three minutes already.

"Damn…damn…damn!", the beautiful girl cursed as she slammed the door of the car open and ran out. She did not want to be late, but in the last few weeks it happened every so often.

Maybe this was because of her latest relationship, because her boyfriend betrayed her with some bitch? Because he always told her stories of big love and now dumped her like a piece of trash, AFTER having his fun with her, of course?

Yeah, most likely that was why.

She felt the hate and rage coming up again while her father winked a last time and the cap drove away. He worked as a taxi-driver in the city and had to drive all day long to earn enough money for both of them to make a living, but still he drove her to school every morning.

She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down. Luckily there was no chance that she could meet her ex in school. He was a few years older and already skipped school without a certificate. He was not very intelligent and not the right kind of boy for her, but she fell for him. Even her best friend Toni warned her, but she wouldn't listen to anyone…that was a mistake.

Doesn't matter anymore… , she thought depressed and walked towards the main entrance. It was a beautiful day, approximately 25 degrees Celsius, but not many people were outside.

Actually it was a weird day to begin with. First no newspaper was delivered and then the radio had no news, too. She had heard on the last day that the police had found even more victims of the cannibals. Pretty near the city now, that was kind of worrying, but her father said that they would very soon get these murderers.

It was only two weeks ago that the members of the Special Tactics and Rescue Squad, S.T.A.R.S., came back from investigating the Raccoon Forest and spread stories of monsters and zombies. Ridiculous.

As most of the city Diana had thought them to be crazy and did not believe them, but now after the murder-cases increased in number, she was not so sure anymore.

A movement next to her made her turn her head.

The sound of rollerblades mixed with the gongs of the bell as a girl of her age struggled along the walkway directly towards Diana. She blinked once, but it was too late for any reaction.

The girl on the skates rushed into her and both of them fell to the ground, landing on their butts.

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Approximately halve an hour earlier:

"No, mom, I don't want a driver", Toni said, while she was sitting on a chair next to the door of her house. She had a pair of rollerblades in her hand and was just trying to get them on.

Next to her stood a middle-aged woman with hazel eyes and blonde hair, her loving and sometimes annoying mother.

"But, Antonia…err…", her mother tried, but closed her mouth again. She knew that her daughter did not like her full name "Antonia" Williams. It sounded so snobby. She was just "Toni", for her friends and family, but her mother seemingly had trouble calling her by that name. It did not exactly fit in the society that the Williams were living in (or thought they would be living in).

"You know why I don't like you walking to school alone. People could kidnap you to blackmail dad."

Okay, her family was rich; her father was the owner of Raccoon's greatest bank in the uptown. He had connections to the powerful Umbrella Corp. and managed million-dollar funds for them. But, to be realistic, her family was not really part of the high society, even though her mother always liked to pretend it. The really rich people of the city (who were high investors of Umbrella) always looked down on them.

Well, Toni never cared of what these snobs thought; she was a normal girl and lived exactly like one. That was why she did not want to be driven to school by the family's driver. She was nothing special because of her money and wanted to show that.

"If anyone touches me, I'll kick their sorry a…"

"Please, Antonia, watch your language…", her mother sighed. "… there is this cannibal-cult…it's dangerous out there."

"Next you tell me that these cannibals are the reason why the radio doesn't work, huh? Mom, please, that's just an idea created by a journalist who could not find a decent story."

An absolutely ridiculous idea, isn't it? Even if the radio is not working since last evening, that surely was just a problem with the antennas or something.

Toni closed the last bracket of her skates and stood up. Sadly the school was in the uptown of Raccoon, meaning that she had quite a long way from their house downtown, but with these Rollerblades she'd be there pretty quick.

"Well, I'll be gone then. If I meet the cannibals I'll greet them from you", the dirty-blonde girl smiled at her mother, who wasn't the one to take such jokes.

Opening the entrance door she was already on her way, she could hear her mother saying something, but the noise of the skates swallowed it.

The house of the Williams was only a few meters away from the City Hall, thus Toni had to pass the big iron-gate with that ridiculous clock in front of the Hall every morning. It was always open and as far as she new there not even was a possibility to shut it, at least no button or something.

She rolled along the Warren Street that was named after the major Michael Warren, a close friend of her father, passing some of the still closed shops of the shopping district until she finally reached the Ennerdale Street and took a left towards the High School.

Another thing besides her name that Toni had to deal with was that her parents always wanted to send her to a private school. You know, these factories that produce mindless snobby members of the upper society…

It took Toni quite a time to convince them of the Raccoon High. Luckily her best friend Diana did provide her with back-up in that talk.

Well, this was then and now she was more concerned of coming late for first lesson. When she turned into Davies Street, she already heard the bells of the school ringing and tried to get some more speed. She dodged a few trees and finally could see the main entrance and a familiar figure with long brown hair. Diana was late, too: A rare sight.

_Most likely because she is experiencing a lousy time of life just no_w…, Toni thought while the girl turned her head in her direction.

She had warned her friend not to engage with that bastard, but she was in love…or thought so…she just did not want to see the truth. At least until that guy stole her virginity and dumped her afterwards. Diana's heart was broken and still is.

All these thoughts rushed through Toni's head in only two seconds, but that was much too long. She noticed that Diana was now much nearer, much too near!

WOOAMM

The two girls found themselves on the walkway, Diana looked at her annoyed.

"Uhh…sorry…couldn't brake…", Toni mumbled holding her hurting head.

"Next time… watch your way, girl", her friend replied, but she managed to quickly stand up again and reached her hand out for Toni.

The dirty-blonde girl grabbed it and pulled herself to her feet…err…skates again.

They were already late, but at least they managed to class before their teacher.

A normal day starts.

For these five people the day will bring the living horror.

A normal day starts…in Raccoon City


	2. Chapter 1

-11)

Lieutenant Albert Cross did not have a good feeling.

It must have been around 9 o'clock this morning that the first emergency calls had been received by the RPD, but Cross had that bad feeling since 4 o'clock in the morning when he had woken up and started with his normal training which he did every morning for the last thirty years.

Now he was sitting inside of one of the bulletproof vans and was driven through the city.

He was a pretty experienced officer of Raccoon's SWAT-commando and today he learned that whatever he had seen in is carrier, until now, was nothing compared to the true horror of the human-mind.

The Raccoon's SWAT was something like the little (or big, depends which side your on) brother of the S.T.A.R.S. The SWAT were much more in number, but they were only for actions like hostage-rescue or taking care of demonstrations which went out of control, while the S.T.A.R.S. were to investigate on "special" cases. Meaning they got the most interesting jobs. That was why the two teams, Alpha and Beta, consisted of people, who were not fit for the "normal" police-duty.

If you now think that Cross did not like the S.T.A.R.S., you're damn right. Most of them were at least twenty years younger then him, except Burton, whom he started to like after he got him a customized gun from Kendo's.

They even had that teenager, Chambers: A girl, who was considered a genius.

Which does not make her qualified for police duty… , he thought darkly, his leather-gloved hand patting on the side of his H&K MP5.

Even before the S.T.A.R.S. returned from the Raccoon forest, he found the group very suspicious, especially that Redfield always made trouble with his problem of accepting authority, even the one of the chief, and Valentine was not much better.

But now, after their investigation, you could really consider them nuts. They told bizarre stories of monsters and zombies, blaming Umbrella for the creation of a killer-virus. In a nutshell, they lost their minds.

How could this great pharmaceutical corp., which did so many good things for this city, do something like that?

Well, no one believed them and Chief Irons had no choice but to suspend them.

That was two weeks ago… , the professional Officer thought looking around in the moving van, maybe, just maybe, we should have…believed them… 

When the first calls were received the officer taking care of the phone thought of a big joke.

The caller, a shrieking woman, told of a group of people walking through the streets and attacking everyone in their way. They were moving awkwardly and their bodies seemed to be in a terrible shape, like they were decaying while walking.

Real zombies…

Cross could not accuse the cop for not taking her serious; he would not have either. But now, some hours later, he wished they had done something before the situation escalated. The emergency calls came every minute from everywhere in the city and became more and more desperate: Kids calling because their parents had attacked them, Parents calling because their kids attacked them…hell on earth. Starting this morning the whole city turned into a battlefield.

Cross could remember what Irons had said when he spoke to the two SWAT teams that were send out. We don't have any confirmation on the rumors, so I advice you not to overreact. Use of weapons is strictly forbidden until we have more information. , the fat chief had said.

At a moment like this Cross was able to understand Redfield. Irons was an idiot, to give such an order. There indeed was no proof of the rumors, but these "zombies" were dangerous and attacked everything.

It would have meant something different if the SWAT-teams would have consisted of pro's like Cross himself, but Irons thought it was a great idea to let the two rookie-teams handle this situation with Cross and his comrade Stevenson as leaders.

These boys just came from the academy and were scared out of their minds. The religious ones in his van were holding a rosary and prayed to whatever god they believed in, the others checked their weapons and magazines over and over again.

Cross wanted to tell them that this would be a breeze, just a little job, done in fifteen minutes, already back for lunch. But he knew that this was a bad idea, the fear would sharpen their senses, make them careful.

When he started his career at the age of only 18 in the Korea-war, his superior had told him before his first mission that it was okay to wet your pants, if you only know when it's time to pull the trigger. And Cross did know it, every single time. He later went to Vietnam and got a medal of honor, while many of his team-members were killed.

After the war he started with the police and was very quickly promoted to the SWAT.

He liked his job. Even though he never had time to start a family or find a wife, he considered his life fulfilled.

The van stopped sharply causing the tires to make a loud shrieking noise that made some of the young officers' twitch in shock.

"Alright, men", Cross barked while he stood up and walked towards the door. "We have arrived at the rendezvous-point. According to the information we got, this group of troublemakers is walking in this direction. Now our mission is to stop them and arrest them. You got sharp ammo, but you won't need it. Use the stunguns if necessary. Any questions?"

The words howled through the small space of the van.

Some of the recruits looked at him; others looked only at their shoes and only one dared to ask a question. "I-i heard that these guys are the living dead…like the S.T.A.R.S. told. Is that true?" The boy could only be twenty. A rosary dangled around his neck.

Cross tried to sound very sure and hard: "Listen, bub, if the dead really come back to live, I hope they tell me how the food up there is, before I send them back. And now pull yourself together!"

The youngsters stiffed and rose quickly. "Sir, yes, sir!"

"Now, go!", Cross barked, unlocked the door and jumped out onto the street.

He quickly looked around to find out where he was and felt his stomach crumble. The building of Raccoon's biggest bank-complex arose only a few hundred meters to the right. This was Ema Street, the main-street, Warren Street, was parallel to this one and very near. Too near.

Was it really possible that these offenders had already reached that far? Why couldn't the cops stop them?

Next to his van stopped the other one with Stevenson and his group. Some cops had already build up a barricade with their cars and seemed to wait for the SWAT.

Cross quickly glared at Stevenson, who looked as uncomfortable as he himself felt. How could Irons only think of sending this boys? Especially when the offenders were until now unidentified? Yeah, he started to have doubts on the mental health of the chief, but that was not the time for that he had to take what he had an ddo his best.

"Alright, men, position yourself along the barricade and be ready for everything", he shouted and his boy-commando followed his order as quick as they could, some were very clumsy, but they managed to take their places. Weapons clicked.

These boys were not ready, but as Cross would find out soon, he wasn't either.

The tension was sheer unbearable, no one even dared to breath loud, they all stared at the corner of the street where these offenders were to come from.

Seconds expanded to hours and everyone started to wish that they would finally come, just for it to be over now.

However when the first one walked around the corner the tension was replaced by an even stronger feeling. Pure horror…

The person that slowly walked nearer was a big middle-aged man with reddish hair; his movements were awkward; a twitching went through his body again and again, like he could not control his legs anymore. He could have been thought of as drunk, but the most striking feature was that his cloth were over and over stained with blood; fresh blood still dripping from his mouth.

When that guy was only twenty meters away, Cross could see that his skin was pale grey and his eyes were white, they had disappeared into his head.

Cross' stomach crumbled again, his bad feeling was back.

_What the hell is this thing?_

Could it really be one of these "zombies" the S.T.A.R.S.' were talking about? Cross was a man that hated to admit when he was wrong, but this time…

The "zombie" walked nearer and now aimed his empty eyes directly on the group of men standing in its way.

A hungry moan came from its mouth as it raised his arms and increased speed.

What should he do? Gun that thing down? Or follow the chief's order and try to arrest it? He did not know.

For the first time in thirty-five years he did not know what to do!

BLAM!

The sound of the firing H&K next to him brought him back to his senses. One of his recruits had broken under the pressure and fear and placed a bullet directly into that bloody guys stomach, not far away from his heart.

_Good aim. Deadly wound_

The thing collapsed.

Cross was relieved that somebody did what he couldn't, but they had their orders.

"Stupid child, our order was to capture him not kill him! Did I say that you should shoot?", he barked at the trembling boy, who, of course, was now suffering from his bad conciseness. Tear's stood in his eyes.

The elderly SWAT sighed, he knew how it felt when you first kill someone. You want to throw up and wish it never happened.

But then the teary eyes of the boy turned bigger, a panic-near expression and Cross instinctively turned his head back. The guy who had just been lying deadly wounded started to stand up, slowly, but much too quick for someone with such a wound. He should be in coma or already dead!

The thing eventually stood again and just walked on as if nothing had happened.

"Fire!", Cross shouted, still not believing what he just saw.

_This is not real, I am dreaming_

In Vietnam he had seen men still firing their guns even though they were already burning from Napalm, but this was different. This thing did not scream with pain, it was not even noticing the wound or the blood running down its stomach.

"Fire!", he shouted again.

And finally, finally it started. Everyone aimed and fired their weapons at this thing. Countless bullets hacked into the bloody body and the sheer force of the shots drove it back. It finally died when some of the bullets found its head and transformed it into nothing more then a bloody hunk of flesh.

Cross' heart was pounding like an atomic bomb and his head still had trouble accepting that he had just killed something that already seemed to be dead.

"Sir", a weak voice of one of his recruits said, it was the one from the van with the rosary.

"Yeah?"

"You forgot asking it about the food…", a slight smile hushed over the boys face. He needed something to distract himself from what had just happened so he tried it with this joke.

And well…, Cross found that it not even was a bad one, actually a damn good one.

He started to laugh out loud leaning against the van behind him; he could really start to like that boy. He might be a good SWAT one day.

"Y'know kid, I'd really had liked...

The words stuck in his neck, as a hungry moan howled over the street, then another one and another.

Then hell broke over them. They came from everywhere, the alleys next to them the street behind them and the street in front of them.

It were more then fifty, at least, and Cross knew that they would all die.

"Fire! Kill everything moving!", he shouted and aimed at one of the "zombies" on his left side. At least fifteen were coming from an alley there and many of his recruits were firing, but their guns were almost empty. The creatures attacked them with inhuman force ripping them apart with their bare hands or biting their throats.

The young recruits died quicker then any of them could react and these things were unstoppable.

Cross tried to aim, but his men all stood in his way.

After only three minutes it was down to himself and that boy with the rosary, the zombies were everywhere and everywhere died good men. Screams filled the air combined with the stench of blood; the moans of the zombies almost made Cross lose his mind.

When the cold fingers of one of them touched his neck he wanted to scream himself, but he knew it was pointless. The last thing he saw, before the teeth of the thing cut into his neck, was the young boy holding his Beretta, which was a staple item of everyone's equipment, directly at his head and pulled the trigger.

_Good choice…_

Then everything turned black.


	3. Chapter 2

-1

2)

Classroom M5 was located in the ground floor of Raccoon High. The school had just two floors ground and F1, to make up for that lack in height it had a relative big area and was designed like a big lying O, using the free space in the middle as schoolyard. Meaning that it was impossible to enter or leave the yard without entering the building first.

Well, all of this was of little importance or interest to Alan Riley at the moment.

He was sitting at one of the desks in the mentioned classroom and tried desperately not to sleep in during this boring Math-lesson.

This already was his sixth class this morning and he was so fed up with this school. English, France, Physics and now Math, what a great day until now…and it was already 4 PM.

The teacher was an old bald man with a jaggy beard and a bored expression. Judging from his behavior it seemed obvious that he hated the students. You could hear that in his tone and the way he was asking questions, he was unsatisfied with his life and his students had to pay for that. Atop of that he was in a really bad mood this morning because he got bitten by a strewing dog yesterday and was feeling bad since then.

He had explained that at the beginning, just to make sure no one even think of taking him lightly today.

Anyway, Alan did not give a damn on his attitude or mood; he was already busy scribbling something on the plate of his desk with his marker.

From Junior High on he had been bad in school, even though he was certified a high IQ in Elementary, and he did not see any reason to change something working well. Thus he kept his mouth shut and tried to ignore the rest of his "classmates".

Before the lesson had started he had analyzed some of them and found no one really interesting, apart from that guy on the table next to him maybe. It was a halve-Japanese with pretty pale, almost unhealthy, skin, but his arms spoke a different language. Alan had recognized the excellently trained muscles and seen some bruises indicating that he sometimes used them to fight.

He was either member of a street-gang or did martial-arts professionally.

As a contrast to this guy there was a real wimp, some called him Benny, in the seat directly at the teacher's desk. He had thin arms, wore glasses as thick as a bottle's stand and had his hair neatly combed. He was the perfect image of a loser…, someone who was always bullied.

He checked on some of the girls, too, and well…most of them were looking good and well build, but he wasn't interested in them. He never used to date girls or anything since…

_Don't think of that!_

The friendly girl, who had welcomed him at the beginning of the day, her name was Diana King when he correctly remembered, attended this class, too. She was what other guys might have called "hot chick". Long brown hair, skin in the color of good cappuccino and dark eyes.

Her friend, a quite shrewish girl in short pants and a green top, seemed to always be by her side and this class was not an exception. He could at the moment only see her back with her short hair, but he remembered that she had gotten mad at him when he ignored Diana's friendly welcome.

"…that's your homework for tomorrow", the teacher just concluded his sentence and explanation of the ton of homework he gave his students.

_Great if I can manage to survive another ten minutes it's finally over for today… _

After school he intended to look for a job. Something he could do after school that would get him enough money for his own apartment. He'd everything to get away from his stupid family.

"Before I forget, the principal told me to pass this out", the teacher said with a monotone voice and gave some papers to "Benny".

When it reached him he only needed one glance to make out it's purpose. It was an announcement for the closing time for everyone under the age of twenty-one. Because of these bizarre murder-cases in the last time the police did not want kids to run out late.

"You should mark this closing time, if not…well… no one could be accused if you get yourself killed", the bald old man mentioned while he was already packing his stuff.

_Asshole._

Alan grabbed the few things he had on his table and wanted to stand up himself, just when the first scream hallowed through the room. A high-pitching tone tearing on his eardrum.

_Girl. Girl in panic_

"What was that!", one of the girls asked in shock.

"Stay calm", the teacher said not cal himself, "I will…"

Another scream, male this time, but equally in panic.

_What the hell is happening out there?_

"I will go and check", the bald man concluded his sentence, now near panic himself.

Alan and the rest of the class watched him walking through the rows towards the grey plastic door. The blonde boy had a really bad feeling and checked his pockets for his knife, but couldn't find it. He quickly remembered that he had left it in his room, because he did not know if this school had detectors at the gates. Now after seeing that it didn't, he cursed himself for not taking it.

Meanwhile the teacher had reached the door and touched the handle.

The screams had become more frequent, male and female voices mixed, whatever was going on out there it had to be horrifying.

With a silent klick the door lock opened as if it were the gate to hell.

The fat body of the teacher filled the entire space of the door so that none of the students could see anything, but the noises were more then enough. They could have been taken from one of these stupid splatter-movies.

People were still screaming, but the screams got more silent.

The teacher stood there frozen and whispered some words.

"What is that…what are…these…you…impossible…"

Another head appeared in front of the teacher, it was a tall man with black short hair, but he looked kind of sick somehow.

Seconds passed and the picture framed by the door's frame was moving so quick that none of the students was able to do anything. They could only watch as the guy grabbed their Math-teacher with grey dirty hands, opened his mouth and bit into the teachers fleshy throat.

Blood sprayed everywhere and the girls started to scream.


	4. Chapter 3

-13)

_That is not happening. It can't be happening. I just have a really bad dream. _

Rick stared at the door startled. He never had seen so much blood anytime in his life. Even when his father died it wasn't half that much. That ill guy must have bitten the artery and almost ripped it out. The teacher fell to the ground and staid there. Obviously dead.

The bastard that had eaten away half its neck on the other hand seemed to be still hungry, even though the blood of its last "meal" was dripping from its mouth. Rick felt the strong wish to finally wake up, but with every second passing he knew that he would not. Jumping up from his place he tried to analyze this murderer. He was tall, had black hair and wore a pretty expensive outfit, which was not only tainted by the blood of their teacher but by some which already started to dry; he must have killed others before.

_The screams…other students… _

That freak must have attacked the students who were on their way home, most likely he killed many of them. But what kind of human would kill others by eating them? That was so sick his brain could hardly grasp it.

And then he saw the murderer's eyes.

They were blank white, no pupils, with a red line under the eyeball, that was NOT a human's eyes.

_God in heaven. What are you?_

All of these thoughts flashed through his mind in merely five seconds, while his classmates screamed wildly, even some of the boys, but Rick knew that panicking would not help the situation.

Whether this thing was real or not, it was dangerous and he did not have any wish to die already, he looked around to find something useable as a weapon.

Behind that thing appeared another head, a fat man in a dirty green baseball-shirt and jeans. He looked as sick as the murderer and as bloody. Rick managed to reach the space directly next to the door where a small sink was installed, while the two whatever-they-are walked into the room and attacked the other students recklessly.

Rick grabbed an old broom leaning in the corner next to the basin for cleaning the room after classes.

It took him only a small kick to break the stick, having a perfect weapon now. Behind him the screams of fear turned into screams of pain and from the angle of his eye he saw a third creature enter the room.

_Gotta shut that door!!_

He turned around and saw that many of his 'mates already were wounded or dead, it had taken these things not long to transform the classroom into a slaughterhouse. The students were in panic and helpless.

Wrath exploded in his head, he wanted these things dead, make them pay for what they were doing, take revenge.

But he could not let himself be controlled by anger, then he'd die. First, the door had to be closed.

"Gimme that chair!!", shouted an icy voice next to him.

He had so been consumed by the picture in front of him, that he oversaw the white-blonde boy, who already took care of the door. And he was in trouble. Two grey arms bowed from outside the room around the door touching him while he threw himself against the door to get it closed.

"Damn, get me that chair!!", he shouted again.

Rick shook his thoughts off to finally do something. He grabbed the chair next to him and threw it over to that new boy, who seemed not to be panicking, too.

_Good…not alone…_

The boy catched the chair without backing away from the door. He slammed against it with all of his weight and after two of these hits the two arms disappeared. The lock clicked and he quickly placed the chair under the handle. Now nothing could get in anymore.

The things had meanwhile taken out other students already and Rick knew it was impossible to save everyone, just as he realized that, he saw that the fat guy with the baseball-shirt was walking at a brown-haired girl who had tears dripping from her cheeks.

_Diana!!_

The girl was one of those few in the class he liked, she had always been nice to him and now she was about to die.

_Damn it!! Do something already!!!_

"You bastard", he heard himself shouting as he jumped forward and stabbed that thing with the stick of the broom. The broken side pierced into the back of it and it collapsed.

The fat body did not move any longer the stick standing up from it like a grotesque monument.

_Must have hit the spinal cord…paralyzed it…_

"Diana? Are you okay?", he asked softly. The girl stared at him without saying anything. She obviously had a shock.

_Of course she has, she just saw all her friends been slaughtered, you idiot!!! And of course she is NOT okay!!_

"Hey!! Watch out!!", it was the same cold voice from before. Rick reacted by turning around and he saw the third of these things, a bald thin man in a red jacket, only centimeters behind him. It was already stretching out his arms. The black haired boy knew he would never be quick enough, knew he would die.

But he was saved, saved by a glove-clad fist.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alan drove his fist into the jaw of that bloody thing and felt the bone breaking with a loud crack. He was lucky that he had taken the time to shove his black skater-gloves over when this mess started. The protective layers in it prevented him from breaking his knuckles as well.

While the sick man fell to the ground, Alan had just enough time to ask himself what he had been stumbling into here. He just wanted to get out of the school, get a job, an apartment and all that stuff. Was that such a big wish that these creatures from hell had to come and show him?

Well, whishing it to be different would not change the situation and he was not one of those chickens who would have started shrieking like crazy, he hated such weak people. Thus he did his best to save his ass and the ass of that halve-Japanese, who helped him fighting these things. He could be of some use.

He was strong, but rather stupid. Looking after that girl while he should be watching his own back was a big mistake.

The white-blonde boy placed his right foot on the chest of the thing to his feet, asking what kind of demon he was facing…

_Well, the pain should have taken it out for a time._

…when that thing suddenly started moving again wildly. Alan almost lost his stance, but somehow managed to hold it.

_Impossible!!_

He quickly increased pressure on its chest while it waved his arms around and tried to bite his foot. The boneless jaw seemed not to cause it any problems, he did not even seem to have pain. The desperate desire in the blank eyes of that thing filled him with a bizarre mixture of pity and hate.

"Let's see if ya feel that one!!", Alan spit out and kicked the things head with all his force.

Another cracking noise indicated that the neck had broken and the thing stopped moving finally.

"Thanks, you saved me", the halve-Japanese said, stretching out his hand.

Alan rolled his eyes ignoring the hand. "Whatever…".

_It were three…where's the third?_

"Help!!", a female voice screamed. The two boys turned around and then Alan saw that thing. It was bowed over a fallen table, almost looking like one of the dead students himself, and under the table two legs kicked in the air desperately.

"Please help me!!!", the voice screamed in panic.

The black haired boy jumped past Alan, before he could react, ripping the broom-stick from the body of the other dead thing on his way.

He reached the location and used the stick like a bat to hit that thing off the table. Not wasting another second he aimed and stabbed the sharp side into the body before it could again reach the girl on the floor.

Alan nodded slightly. It was better to kill these things before they could kill them, if they were humans or not they deserved to die.

The table had saved the girls life apparently, it had kept the creature away from her, even though it might have left her some bruises.

_Well, some really have good luck…_

While the halve-Japanese helped the girl standing up, Alan looked around in the room. It now looked like after a bomb had blown up. Corpses were lying everywhere, blood covered the walls and the silent sobbing of the brown-haired girl…

_Diana, that was her name…_

…behind him fitted that picture perfectly.

„You alright, Antonia?", the halve-Japanese asked the girl he had just helped standing up. Surprisingly it was just the girl who got mad at Alan earlier. The friend of the girl behind him.

_Only four survivors…out of sixteen students…what a mess…_

„I-i…oh god…", the blonde girl held her hand before her mouth while she seemed to not be believing what her eyes told her.

She ran to the sink quickly and lost her lunch to it.

Alan rubbed his tired eyes. This was just great. He was in a life and death situation with a crying wrack and a girl with a nervous stomach. Just great.


	5. Chapter 4

-14)

Toni spit out the last piece of her lunch, pretty bad meat loaf from the cafeteria when she remembered correctly , and opened the faucet. Water streamed down next to her face and cleaned the mess in the basin. She took some of the water and in her hand and drank it quickly then she raised her head again.

Trying to oversee as much of this catastrophe as possible she walked back to her savior. Rick Misamoto, a boy she hardly knew had saved her life. He killed that monster.

Surprisingly she did not feel any tears in her eyes, was she so cold that she would not shed tears for her killed classmates?

_No, that's not it. This just is not the time._

„Rick, thank you. You saved my life…I don't really know what to say…I…", she stuttered. Well, she had no idea how to thank someone for one's life plus she did not know much about Rick. He had always been so silent and normally kept away from trouble.

„You're welcome…I just did what I had to…", Rick replied scratching the back of his head.

„Oh come on, spare me this scene…you can kiss each other's ass later", another voice said. A voice so dark and icy that Toni really got goose bumps.

She turned her head and saw the remaining two (living) persons in the room, causing her heart to skip a beat. Her best friend Diana knelt at the ground and cried. Still she was so happy to see her alive, that she at first ignored the guy next to her.

„Diana!!", she shouted and ran past the guy and hugged her crying friend. „You're alive…god your alive…"

Diana did not really react, she was still in a terrible shape, trembling and crying, but apparently seeing Toni she felt a bit better.

„What a touching scene really…but I think we have something more important to do now…"

Toni let loose of Diana and looked at the other guy angry, what kind of guy would say something like that in such a situation?

Their eyes met and the stabbing ice-blue of his pupils made her freeze for a second. His gaze was as cold and emotionless as his voice had been. But Toni was not impressed by such a low behavior.

„You cold-hearted idiot!! Do you have any idea of what has just happened?", she shouted while standing up to face the boy. She remembered him from this morning. When Diana had tried to welcome him in the new school he had just ignored her, his name was Riley. Alan Riley.

„Yeah, actually I have…guys killed everyone but us, right?", he replied bored. „Now, I think we should get outta here. And I don't think wild hugging would help us doing that, right again?"

Toni grumbled loudly, she almost would have hit him, but was stopped by a weak nosy voice.

„H-he is right…we have to…go…if they come again…", Diana said while she stood up herself wiping some tears out of her eyes.

Toni looked at her friend again, she was still trembling, but seemed to pull herself together. She was much stronger then you would think. That was the result of her past.

„Not that I like his words, but our new friends is right. We cannot stay here", Rick said while he took the broom stick from the dead body again. The sharp side was now colored dark-red and Toni saw that he very carefully kept away from that things blood.

_Good idea…god knows what you could get from that stuff…_

The blonde girl sighed. „Well, I guess getting out of this hell would be a good idea."

Alan nodded: „Alright, since we don't know what we will be facing out there, I want you all to score everything that could be used as a weapon."

A sudden noise made the entire group freeze, the noise of a door that was opened. They all looked towards the door, but it was neatly shut, with the chair still blocking its handle.

„What the…?"

„Is it over…?", asked a weak trembling voice from somewhere.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ben Carter was save.

The small boy had survived the deadly assault of these „creatures", he could not think of any better name, apart from that one that had appeared in his head when he first saw them.

_Zombies… _

When these things had entered the room and everyone started screaming he made his way crawling on the floor towards the big locker in the room, which was normally used to store chalk or sponges, but it was almost empty and gave him more then enough space to hide. But the thin layer of wood could not shield him from the desperate screams and the horrible noises of his classmates dying.

He had pressed his hand against his ears, but he could still hear them. How they were calling him a coward, a weakling, who rather hid inside of that locker instead of helping them, all these voices inside of his head. They almost drove him crazy.

_Coward. Coward. Coward_

Of course he had always been a wimp, all his life, but this might have been the one chance to prove that he was not. Well, he screwed it big time.

Thus he had waited inside of that locker for about ten minutes until the screams had stopped and he heard people speaking outside. He was not really sure who that could have been, the voices were hard to recognize through the door, but the cool, actually pretty cold, tone in one of the voices gave him hope that the police might have come already.

_Get out, you wimp! Get your damn ass up!!_

He slowly opened the door and tried to prepare for what he would see.

Glancing through a small slid he asked: „Is it over…?"

No answer at first, then without warning someone grabbed the door and ripped it out of his hands. Light from the halogens on the ceiling hurt in his eyes and he only saw a shadow moving right in front of him.

_The Zombies, they're still here!!_

„Now what do we got here?", asked one of the shadows and Ben suddenly felt a hand grabbing his collar.

_I am gonna die!_

„Did you hide in there all the time?", a cold voice asked while Ben's eyes finally started to work again and he saw the ice-blue eyes of a boy starring at him darkly.

_A survivor?_

„I yes…I was in there…hiding…", Ben stuttered.

The reaction of the blue-eyed boy was quick and sudden. A gloved fist hit Ben's left cheek driving him against the wall.

„Damn coward! You waited while these monsters had eaten enough of your classmates so that you could escape unharmed, huh?", the boy said, almost spitting out the words. He obviously was disgusted by Ben.

„No I…I was so scared…", Ben tried and felt tears dripping from his eyes, not only because of the pain, no, because this boy was most likely right. He really didn't care for the others to survive. What kind of human was he, anyway?

„Hey, Mister Freeze, give him a break. What could he have done? He would just have ended up as another corpse. I understand him", a girl said. It took him some seconds to recognize her as Antonia Williams, one of the few girls, who had treated him with respect.

„I agree…", another boy said. Ben did not know much more about him then his name. Rick Misamoto, a halve-Japanese.

And behind that blue-eyed boy he could see Diana King, she seemed to be shaking and her eyes spoke of many tears she had shed.

„I am sorry…really…I just couldn't…y'know…move…", Ben stuttered.

„Great…well… let me tell you this much. I am pretty sure there are more of these things out there. If you „can't move" then you most likely will end up as dead as these ones", he pointed over his shoulder and Ben now saw what he meant. The classroom looked like after a massacre, blood and bodies everywhere.

_Oh god…_

He was a fan of these old horror-movies, especially the ones of Romero and these B-movies with the simple story. Maybe he only was interested in them because his mother would never have allowed him to watch them, but it went as far as him entering an Online-Fanclub on Romero, which was something his mother would have killed him for. Anyway he learned about anything on the creatures called „Zombies" and when these three guys entered the room, he knew what they were.

It was not the blood or the corpses that made him feel so terrified now, no, it was the sheer disbelieve in these monsters.

_This is real life, not a movie…there are no zombies…or maybe this a movie? Am I stuck into some wired splatter-movie?_

While he thought about this, he managed to stand up again, leaning against the wall and rubbing his hurting cheek.

_Yeah, that is the only way this could be happening, it is a movie…_

„So, what are we gonna do, now?", Antonia asked obviously trying to avoid the look of the dead students, „Wait for the police to arrive and get us out?"

„No,…", the blue-eyed boy responded, „…we're not save in here… door's not unbreakable, y'know?"

„You really presume that there are more of these things out there, right?", Rick Misamoto asked.

The boy, whose name Ben still did not know, walked towards the body of one of the creatures, knelled down and looked a it as it were a rare species. Actually that's what it was.

„Yeah…there are more of them…many…"

Antonia looked at the back of his head disbelieving. „And how, Mister Riley, do you come to this brilliant idea?"

_Ah, his name is Riley…_

„The screams, girl. They have stopped."

The blonde girl's mouth stood open, her face turned pale. Yes, it was silent now, the screams, that had started some minutes ago, stopped, but did this really mean everyone but them was dead? This seemed impossible, but judging from the damage only three could do, Ben did not even want to think of what a group of ten or even twenty could do.

„No…that is impossible…you're lying…", Antonia trembled.

Riley looked at her coldly. „I don't care if you believe me, but I won't stay here to find out. I am going."

Ben stopped rubbing his cheek and walked a little distance. „W-what do you want to do?", he asked still in fear of the blonde boy.

„Get out here, of course, Benny", he replied, pronouncing the „Benny" extremely.

„Fine…", Rick said.

„I-I'll come, too", Ben mumbled silently.

_And I will show that I have courage, too. I will show them all. Thank god, it's just a movie._

They all looked at Antonia, who seemed to understand that she, did not have much of a choice.

„Okay", she said, „Count me in."

Then she turned towards her best friend Diana, who did not say anything for a long time. She managed a slight smile. „Yeah, me, too."


	6. Chapter 5

-1Well everyone, thank you for all this reviews.

Maybe I'll have to change the rating with this chapter because of the violence, so be sure to check the story in the M category.

Now enjoy the next part.

4)

Alan threw an empty backpack to the side and grabbed a new one lying next to a dead girl. These bastards had taken a big bite at her throat. She either suffocated or blooded to death. Either way was a terrible one to end ones life.

_I will not die like this, never…_

The girl's pack was useless as the others had been. Just filled with these stupid schoolbooks and that was all. No weapons or anything.

He had told his „companions" that they should get everything from the room that could be used as a weapon, then he searched some bags himself, not bothering to search his own pack as it was only filled with school-stuff. Not even one of the bags had at least a baton or pocket knife.

_So much for the High School rumors._

All he found was lipstick and -gloss, some food, money and some unopened condoms.

_Could give these creatures a nice make-up, could I?_

The sarcastic tone in his own inner voice started to annoy him, so he tried to put these thoughts aside.

Well, he'd have to use his fists if necessary, even though touching these things did not really sound like a good idea, he did not have much of a choice.

„Okay, I found some pepper-spray and a whistle, that's it", the shrewish girl reported holding a small black tin in her hand.

In the last five minutes he learned that she was called Antonia Williams, but preferred „Toni", because of a reason he was not interested in. The other guy's name was Rick Misamoto, he really was a halve-Japanese as he had presumed already.

Collecting their names was necessary, it would make communication easier and if he'd have to identify their corpses for the authorities…it would help…

„I found nothing, not even a knife…", Rick said still carrying the broomstick, but he already broke the bloody part away. A rather smart idea, even if Alan did not know why, he would not want to get in contact with the blood of these things. The stick was now only about one meter long.

„Can't be changed then. Let's hope this pepper-spray works against these things", Alan decided and pulled at his gloves to fasten their fit on his hands.

„That's the plan: We take the quickest way to the main entrance and leave this school, whatever you see…don't stop!"

„Bah", Toni made annoyed, „You are really a cold fish…what if there are others needing help?"

Alan just starred at her, he knew how his eyes worked when he looked that way. It was a feeling like a sting deep in your heart, especially when he narrowed them. He once heard that it was an effect caused by his eye-color, but he additionally trained on it in front of a mirror.

_The White Devil…_

He quickly bit his tongue to shake these memories off, then he returned to that girl.

„Do not stop… I won't come to save you…", he finally said.

Surprisingly „Toni" did not seem to be effected, she just starred back and answered: „Better look out for yer own ass, ´cause I am not coming to save you…"

_That girl's really got guts, that's good. She'll need it. _

„So …err… can we go now?", Benny (Alan found that name really fitting for such a wimpy guy) asked.

The white-blonde boy turned away from the girl and walked towards the classroom-door, he laid his ear against it in the attempt to check the situation outside.

It was still silent, no screams, no voices or moans of these creatures.

_Good…_

„Alright, let's move", he whispered.

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The door opened slowly, with a silent screeching noise and Diana tried not to shiver.

Her eyes still felt sore from crying and her stomach would not take that stench of blood inside of the classroom any longer. The events of the last twenty minutes were played in her head in an infinite-loop like a much too realistic horror-movie, she saw her classmates, her friends, die over and over again. When she finally was out here, she would break down completely, she knew that, but at the moment she could not give up. She had to pull herself together for as long as it would take.

Alan Riley, the new student, which she had welcomed only this morning pressed against the door carefully, looking through the slit he opened.

„All clear…", he whispered sharply before he moved forward and pushed himself through the slit. His movements were like the ones of a cat, smoothly and exact. For a guy of his age this was a bit too exact and smoothly, she really had liked to know where he learned that, but asking was not an option at the moment.

Her classmate Rick Misamoto managed to get through the door almost as good as Alan, but Ben needed to open it a bit more to get through. Toni followed him and then Diana took her turn and stepped out in the corridor.

She really had been looking forward to take a deep breath of fresh air outside of the room and she was already breathing in, before she noticed that the stench of blood and death out here was far stronger then inside the room.

She swallowed quickly, barely managing to not throw up with all her self-control.

_God…what is happening here?_

The scene in front of her eyes was totally unrealistic. The walls were tainted with blood over and over, corpses and severed limbs were lying along the corridor in dozens. Diana did not even want to count them, it were so many. All dead.

„My god…I did not want to believe this!! It has to be dream!!", Toni said with a trembling voice.

„It's not…", Alan Riley responded, he was the only one among them that did not seem to be shocked.

Rick walked towards one of the countless bodies and looked at it closely. „They were all bitten or …literally ripped apart with bare hands. Damn…"

„…like they were attacked by a wild beast…", Ben mumbled silently.

„Don't have time for that now, let's go now…", Alan commanded and started to walk along the corridor without waiting for them. headed for the main entrance. He did not take any notice of the corpses next to him. Toni was really right to call him „cold". But even if he managed to hide most of his feelings perfectly Diana felt that he was hiding something. He knew something, she and the others did not yet realize.

Diana followed him watching her steps carefully so she would not step onto one these dead students.

A nervous breakdown really sounded like a good idea now, but she couldn't and she wouldn't, she would not hold the others back, because they were most likely feeling the same and pulled themselves together.

The long corridor made a turn to the right and from there it would only be a few hundred meters towards the main entrance, they would easily reach it now.

But life's never that easy, is it?

They were just around that corner when Diana saw her. A girl of about her age, with long blonde hair in a mini-skirt and a white shirt. Well, at least it had been white some time ago, now it was red from blood. She leaned at the wall directly between the corpses of her schoolmates.

_Must have a shock…confused…in panic._

Alan stopped quickly, held up his hand to stop the others, but Toni stepped right in front of him. Her face showed a much happier expression then before.

„Sara, is that you?", she asked that girl and walked forward.

_Sara McKinley, of course…_

It had taken her longer then Toni to recognize the girl. It was a friend of Toni's, a good friend, but Diana had never really had anything to do with her. Well, seeing her save would make Toni feel better anyway.

_But what is this bad feeling?_

Something was not right, she could feel that, but what was it?

Sara moved her head slightly and looked at Toni as she came nearer. „Sara, are you alright?", Toni asked the girl, but she did not get any answer.

_What is wrong with her, there is something, something…_

Sara moved away from the wall and walked a few shaky steps in Toni's direction, her eyes starred at Toni tightly.

The two girls were only two meters away from each other, when Diana finally found out what was wrong.

_Her eyes!! They are blank white, just like the ones of these creatures!!_

„Toni!! Stop!!", Diana shouted in panic, but Toni did not want to hear her, she walked another step and Sara raised her arms. A deep moan came from her mouth.

„Sara?", Toni's voice trembled now.

It would only take Sara another shuffling step to reach Toni and Diana had no idea what to do.

Luckily someone had.

With a disgusting muddy noise Sara's face disappeared in a bloody hunk of tissue with a wooden stick drilled right through her head. The body collapsed immediately, just when it had moved his foot forward.

Alan let his right arm sink again. Diana quickly added that to the now missing broom stick in Rick's hand and knew what had happened. He had killed that girl brutally, but most likely he saved Toni with this. Even though this whole scene was disgusting and awful Diana could not avoid wondering about the accuracy and strength this boy had used to throw the stick. He was no ordinary student.

But Toni was obviously not happy about being saved like this. She starred at the dead body frozen.

„S-sara?", she asked for a last time, as if the girl could still answer, but then she turned her head around. Her eyes filled with an incredible hate pointed at Alan. „YOU!! YOU KILLED HER!!"

Tears dripped from her cheeks causing Diana's heart to hurt incredible. But she knew that it was pointless at the moment. Toni needed to let her feelings out.

The blonde girl stormed forward and drove her fist directly into Alan's face so quick that no one could have stopped her.

Alan rolled with the punch, but still he was pressed a few centimeters back, barely staying on his feet.

„How could you? How could you kill her? You monster!!", Toni shouted and took aim for another attack, but her fist was caught by the boy's.

Diana could only watch that absurd scene in this surrealistic environment while the white-blonde boy wiped some blood from his mouth. Toni tried to free her hand, but it was stuck. She still shouted some insults, but Diana could not even understand the words, she just noticed that her friend was very near to a total collapse.

She felt so helpless like in a dream and could not do anything. Finally when a loud SLAP howled through the corridor her consciousness turned clear again. Toni had turned her head sideways, her eyes opened in surprise and her left cheek turning red.

Alan had given her a slap, not a really hard one though, but enough to make her come to her senses again. He mustered her with his blue eyes angrily and Toni sank to her knees, still confused, totally desperate.

„I did. If not, you'd be dead now. You'd like that better?"

Diana quickly walked next to her friend and laid one arm around her. The girl sniffed uncontrollable, then looked at her with teary eyes, her voice was shaking. „God, Diana, what is happening here?"

„Whatever it is, we will find out!", Diana noticed that her tone was much more encouraged then she actually felt.

„That's impossible…", Rick's not completely accent-free voice mumbled.

Diana turned her head surprised and saw him kneeling next to the dead girl, as if he was examining her.

„What's impossible…?" Alan slowly walked towards the dead body, on his face Diana could not even see the slightest regret.

Rick shook his head unbelieving. „You know… this girl…you did not kill her…"

„Eh?", Alan knelt next to him.

„See that?", Rick pointed to that girls neck, the only thing above her shoulders that was still intact. „It wasn't visible from distance, because of all that blood. But she has an absolutely deadly wound in her throat. A bite from human teeth. She could never have survived such a wound, let alone walk."

The white-blonde boy raised one eye-brow. „What the hell…?"

„Zombies…", a silent voice said from somewhere behind Diana just when she was busy helping Toni back to her feet. The girl had already stopped shivering. Maybe Alan only hit her to stop her breaking down? No, that seemed to much.

„What did you say; Ben?", Diana asked trying to be friendly.

The others followed her gaze and all looked at the small brown-haired boy, whose face was even paler then normally. „I-I wasn't sure at first…but these guys…y'know…"

„Spit it out, already!", Alan barked impatient, his foot tipped annoyed.

Diana rolled her eyes and gave Ben a comforting smile, she really felt pity for that small guy. Even now he was still bullied.

„They are called z-zombies…yes I am pretty sure that's what these things and her…", he briefly pointed at the dead girl on the floor. „… really are. The walking dead…or undead if you want to put it that way."

Diana had once seen a movie dealing with these zombies. She hated it because of the immense violence, but when she thought about it now…

_Damn…this really makes sense…but that was just a fictional story…nothing more…or?_

„Bah…were not in a stupid movie…", Alan sneered and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

Ben seemed to want to reply something, but he did not. Alan really had him intimidated pretty well.

Surprisingly it was Rick who finally asked him the most important question.

„What would that mean for us, if it were „zombies". Do you know anything about them?"

Ben nodded and seemed to think for a second.

„Zombies normally are dead people, who were revived by a kind of magic or curse. But it is only the body that is revived, they are actually mindless, only driven by a brutal lust for blood, they feed on human brains.

But as you have seen, they are really hard to kill. Normally only severe damage to the brain or the spinal cord can stop them."

„Well, that pretty much described the creatures we met in the classroom…bloodthirsty, reckless and hard to get rid of…", Rick commented. He looked as confused as Diana felt, how the hell was it possible for such creatures to really exist.

„But, wait a sec, how comes that Sara was one of them!?", Toni shouted angrily. Diana could not even imagine how terrible she had to feel. Seeing a close friend die was a mental shock she would not wish anybody.

Ben looked down. „Sorry…I did not want to upset you…forgot that she was your friend…sorry.", he mumbled. He quickly rubbed his glasses then he started to explain. „That is the worst part of the story…. You see, if you get killed by one of them, the curse will come over you too, you will become the same as them. Robbed of your humanity will you stalk the living."

„Oh god…that is horrifying…", Diana said.

A second later the realization of what that meant stroke all of them, but it was Toni, who first managed to put it in words. „But…what is with all the corpses of the other students?", she gasped and looked around in the corridor with widened eyes.

_That would be more then fifty only here, about five hundred in the whole school… _

Diana felt her mouth getting dry, just as the first deep moan roared through the room. It came from somewhere at the other end of the corridor behind another corner, exactly the direction they would have to go if they wanted to reach the entrance.

_No…that is impossible…_

„Shit!!", Alan pressed through his teeth.

Some more moans joined the first one and when the creatures walked around the corner Diana recognized that Ben was right. It were former students, obviously. They were not decaying like the ones in the classroom, at least not yet, but their skin was pale grey and their eyes blanc white.

Something moved next to Diana's foot dragging her to look down.

„Yaahh!!", she screamed as one of the corpses, a boy of her age, suddenly grabbed her leg and tried to bite it. His eyes were empty, but the greed for flesh in the boys face was simply too much for Diana.

„Diana!!", Toni shouted and grabbed her hand to pull her away.

She kicked at that boy's, no that thing's head, panicking, but it only moaned more hungry, she quickly stomped on the hand around her ankle and felt really bad when she heard some bones breaking under her shoe. But that thing did not seem to have any pain, it only let off of her foot, because three of its fingers were broken and useless.

Finally Toni managed to pull her away, out of the boy-zombie's reach, but it already started crawling. Like an animal it slowly moved inch by inch, pulling itself forward on its elbows.

Diana coughed deeply while she tried to get some oxygen into her lungs again. She did not even notice that she had screamed all the time.


	7. Chapter 6

-1Thanks again for the reviews.

And yeah the story really is kinda gory, I think if I am writing on Resident Evil and the terrible events in Raccoon I should present it properly. With all the gruesome violence that did not stop from any living thing.

Hope this does not offend anyone, but as you said Andrew, this is how RE is.

5)

„Hey, does the janitor here have some kinda storage?", Alan pressed through his teeth after Diana had finally stopped screaming. Rick had been totally paralyzed when he finally understood what would be happening here very soon.

_This place will be crawling with these monsters…we will never make it out. _

Just when that thought had passed through his brain, Alan's question interrupted his thoughts.

The white-blonde boy had played the „bad-boy" since all of this started and Rick could not really say that he liked how he was treating Ben or Toni, but when he was not acting like the big asshole, he really knew what to do.

So, what in the hell could he want in the janitor's room?

„Yeah, sure, but why?", he asked back, raising one eyebrow. He knew that they only had minutes until the „zombies" would have surrounded them. Every dead body in the corridor started to move now.

„No time. You show the way. Everybody, move!"

Rick quickly nodded and started running back the way they had been coming immediately. It was not a long way to the janitor's room fortunately, but if really all of these corpses were about to attack them it was likely impossible for them to survive. While he threw a quick gaze back and saw that the others were keeping up with him barely he cursed the architect of the school. Why did it have to have only one damn entrance/exit, even the yard was completely surrounded by buildings. They would have to get out of the front door…

The bloody bodies that had been like framing the corridor really all started to move now and the deep hungry moaning put Rick under an incredible psychic pressure, he wanted to stop and fight them, but that would only mean his death.

He passed their classroom whose door was still opened, and Rick saw a black haired girl standing in there in total apathy, just like that friend of Toni had, only that one of her once beautiful brown eyes was missing and now replaced by a terrible dark and bloody emptiness. She did not notice the little group running by nor did she feel the other girl on the floor, once a member of her fan club, chewing on her leg with pleasure.

_Samantha…_

Rick never liked her, but she did not deserve something like that. Be it a curse or spell or whatever, no one deserved to end like that. It was brutal and unworthy for every human…

Thankfully she was out of his sight before he could think about that more.

_Must concentrate…no time for that now…_

The corridor continued around a corner, but they would not take that way. Their target was the metallic door at the back wall. It was the only door made from metal on this floor. On the second floor there additionally was the door of the chemic-classroom. But down here this door would lead them to a small storage room, where the janitor kept his tools, cleaning equipment and some stuff for gardening. Rick really wondered what that Alan could want here.

„This is it!!", he shouted over his shoulder and increased his speed for the last few meters. Luckily there weren't as much corpses here as on the way to the entrance, most likely because it had been time to go home when these creatures attacked and almost all students were on their way there.

The halve-Japanese quickly stopped in front of the door and reached for the handle, a rusty thing, that must have been here for the last twenty years.

The lock clicked but door did not open at first. They were really lucky that the janitor Mr. Francis never locked that door and that Rick once had to help him cleaning the corridors. A disciplinary punishment for avoiding sports-class in summer. He had then asked Francis why he did, because some of the chemical in there were pretty hazardous.

„_Boy, it is not necessary to close that door. It is so damn old that it won't open normally. You have to give it a hard kick on the lower right of it, but no one but me …well, and you now, know about that. So where's the point of locking it?", he had said_

The janitor really was a careless man, but actually he was right. The door would not even budge if you only use the handle, but with a right placed kick it swung open quickly.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ben finally stopped inside of the room and first had to rest his hands on his knees and get a deep breath. He hated running, sports and everything he could not accomplish by using his head, but it was not really like he had a choice this time. The door was slammed behind him and someone found the light-switch. The formerly dark room was lit up by a single naked bulb on the ceiling.

There was nothing really special about this room. There were three big lockers on the wall with different writings on them, a metallic box for tools on the floor next to the lockers and some shovels and similar stuff standing in another corner. That was all.

„Need something to block the door!", that mean guy, Alan, shouted, while he held the handle tightly. The moaning of the zombies was already pretty near, they would find them in here very quickly.

Taking a final deep breath Ben started to look around. He felt the overwhelming emotion of panic, pure and strong. but saying himself that all of this could never be real and that it just had to be a movie or dream encouraged him. In a movie the smart guys always survives, thus he could not die or get hurt, he did not have to be scared.

„Here, catch!", Rick called out and threw a small wooden object to the white-blonde boy. A wedge, as Ben could see, when Alan caught it with one hand and quickly kicked it under the door.

„Good, should keep them busy some time.", Alan commented the quick barricade.

„So…now what did you want in here? We are perfectly trapped now…", Rick muttered and Ben felt another bite of panic in his stomach. He looked around, once, twice, but he could not find a second door.

_What did that guy do? We ARE trapped!! When that door breaks we're dead!!_

„Well, first of all, this door is much more durable then any of the classroom-doors. This'll keep these bastards away some time…", the white-blonde boy responded and already seemed to check the interior of the room.

„Hah, a great strategy…why don't we take a bath in barbecue-sauce while we wait for them to enter, hmm?", Toni said sarcastically. Her eyes were still red from crying for her friend, but she looked much better. Even if that strong attitude was just fake it impressed Ben.

Alan did not seem to care for her sarcasm, he walked towards one of the lockers.

„…but the most important thing about this room is its equipment.", he continued in Ricks direction. „You are a pretty good fighter…together we could take out some of them, but we could never deal with such an enormous number with bare hands. Additionally thinking of these three drawbacks we got with ourselves…"

„Hey!!", Toni shouted.

„…we really will need some weapons to make it to the entrance."

Ben felt like a curtain was removed from his brain, why had he been so stupid? It was so obvious. This room was filled with weapons! All that gardening equipment and the stuff in the toolbox. That was why Alan wanted to come here!

The others seemed to understand it that instant and did not waste another second to search the entire room for everything that had a blade or was strong enough to knock the zombies down. It took them only three minutes and after all they had quite a nice collection now.

A big scythe with a slightly stained curved blade. A two-handed axe used for chopping big trees and some smaller blades and screwdrivers from the toolbox.

„Shit…", Alan said after inspecting the equipment.

Toni reached for one of the smaller blades, a cutter used for slicing carpets, that had its blade only two centimeters out. „What's the problem? These are weapons, or not?"

„Yeah…and I'd like to see ya killing one of these things with that blade…", Alan responded. „… and you could not even lift this damn scythe…"

Toni growled deeply, since she had surely understood that he was insulting her.

„He is right, these weapons are not of much use, we can forget about these knives completely. Hopefully we can use that axe and scythe somehow", Rick said and already reached for the handle of the heavy axe.

Ben saw that his biceps swelled. It really had to be very heavy.

„You keep away from us, we don't wanna slice you, right?", Alan commanded while he grabbed the even bigger scythe. It had to weight more then thirty pounds, but Alan did not complain.

_He is right…we are drawbacks for him and Rick, we can not do anything and just have to keep out of the way…they have to protect us…I will never change…only looking at their backs while they fight…_

„Wait a second. Our plan is to fight through a crowd of approximately two hundred of these „zombies" with just these two weapons?", Diana, who was looking thoughtfully at a screwdriver in her hand, asked. „That kinda sounds like suicide…"

The white-blonde boy mustered her a moment, then he shrugged his shoulders. „Any suggestions?"

A faint smile hushed over Diana's face. „Actually, yes, I have. But we'll need Ben's special abilities."

„Eh?", Ben made surprised.


	8. Chapter 7

-1Sorry, it took so long, but it took sometime for me to feel satisfied with the chapter.

So, enjoy and give credits.

6)

The door of the chemic-education room shut behind Toni with a metallic sound and she first took the time to breath a few times. Running all the way into the second floor had used up much of her stamina plus she was feeling sick all the time since she had seen that damn Alan killing Sara.

…_she was no human anymore…she was dead already…he saved you!!_

She quickly shook her head, that was not what she wanted to hear right now, even if it came from her own inner voice. She wanted to hate him right now, because that was most likely the only thing that kept her on her feet.

„How long will this take?", the target of her hate asked Ben.

„Well, give me ten minutes, that should be enough…if everything is at its place."

Diana's plan was as simple as it was smart, she knew exactly that Ben was the best in chemic and that the teacher, Miss Raks, had recently made him her personal assistant. Meaning he had the key to the locker with the extremely dangerous chemicals in it, plus he knew how to use them. Unfortunately Miss Raks was now lying outside of the room in a pool of her own blood, so she could not help him with it, but Diana seemed to be sure that he could do what she wanted him to.

Basically that was mixing up something that would detonate with a big boom. Using this, they might be able to clean the way to the main entrance and get out. That was the plan. Hopefully it would work out just as easy as it sounded.

Toni slowly walked to one of the white tables that were normally used by the students in the lessons. Each one had a small basin and a faucet for the few times the students could do experiments themselves.

_Man this seems so far away…_

Yes, this all was so damn unreal, it was only last Friday that she had been sitting in this room and was borrowed to death. Actually nothing had changed in here, since there was no lesson in here at that time of the day there were thankfully no bodies here. That, at least, was a good thing.

It was almost refreshing to breath the air with the slight chemical odor, compared to the unbearable stench out there.

The room had several windows, but just as the ones in the first floor these only showed the schoolyard in the center of the complex. The architect must have thought that if the students had the possibility to look out of the windows and watch the streets they would get distracted.

_And thanks to that jerk we can not just escape through a window, really a great school…_

She let herself sink on one of the plastic chairs and leaned back heavily, the short sprint towards the stairs and then towards this room had been really terrorizing. They had seen that the corridors were filled by these „zombies" as Ben called them. And they had come so damn near that Toni had smelled their flesh decaying. Luckily they had been able to dodge most of them as they were pretty slow.

_At least that spared us killing them …just thinking of killing a…human with a scythe or axe is terrible…_

Toni sighed loudly, but she knew that when they wanted to make it out of the school alive, they would have to kill some of them…

Diana and Rick had taken two chairs at the same table as Toni, but Mister Fridge, Alan Riley, preferred standing at the window and starring out.

Meanwhile Ben came from the storage next to the teacher's desk with some bottles and started lining up some test-tubes.

„You know, I really start to think that this is some kind of …well… sick joke", Diana said after a few minutes of silence.

„You think someone plotted all this? This is all a very sick joke?" Toni felt an enormous hate exploding in her head. Could it really be that someone INTENDED to do this, killing hundreds of innocent students and turning them into merciless killers?

_No, impossible…no one could be so insane…_

„Well, Ben said that „zombies" normally are revived by a spell or curse, at least in the movies…that would mean there has to be someone using that spell…", Rick threw in. But according to his tone Toni was sure that he was not buying the story of magic and curses.

„Yeah, if we now start to believe in magic or curses we could try flying out of the windows, couldn't we?", Alan scoffed arrogantly without even taking his eyes from the window. Toni wondered what he was seeing there, but she was not in the mood of asking him or looking herself.

„Yeah, sounds great, why don't you go first?", Toni responded and gave him a sadistic smile, which he could not see of course.

„Anyway, we can be sure that the police will soon come and rescue us. They surely were already informed", Diana said with desperate hope. Toni nodded, but in fact she was not that sure anymore. Since all of this started at least one and a half hours had passed, if the police would have been informed they'd have to be here long ago…

„We should not wait for help from outside…", Alan said silently, still not looking at them, „…you cannot rely on the authorities."

Toni felt the very strong wish to stuff his big mouth, she hated how he was destroying Diana's hopes. Why did he have to? And what was that nonsense of „not relying on the authorities"?

_Ah…that guy's driving me crazy…should ignore him…_

She crossed her arms on the table and bedded her head on them, she wanted to relax as long as she could, because when the door was opened again…she'd need any strength she could find in her heart and body.

The schoolyard of the Raccoon High was like a prison, a cage filled with trees and meadow. There was only one way to get in, a door on the inside of the building, and no other way out. It was completely surrounded by the school building, like an oversized terrarium. But apparently some students, who must have survived the first attack too, forgot about that fact and had tried to escape the creatures into it.

The result was that they were now trapped inside of it and were one by one killed by a group of about ten „zombies". Alan watched the bloody massacre with no emotion. These things were lower then animals, even among animals there was very few cannibalism, but these bastards obviously enjoyed eating their former fellows.

He did not tell the others what was happening down there. Seeing even more of their schoolmates being killed would decrease their will of fighting and that would make them even stronger drawbacks.

_Why the heck am I taking care of them anyway? I should just have ran to the exit and leave them…_

But he couldn't. Because of some stupid reason he just couldn't.

Was it a sense of responsibility? He did not know, he only knew that it was now too late to take the other way.

Now, he would have to get all of them out of here save, and hope that his most terrible vision would not be proofed. He did not tell anyone of this supposition and would not until it was time.

Suddenly he heard Toni gasp in shock and turned his head. „Wait a second…do you remember these murder-cases? You know this cannibal-cult thing?"

The sudden realization hit Alan unprepared, he immediately understand what she was talking of. His father had told him about this story only this morning. It all fitted perfectly. The story of the gruesome slaughtered people, who were found in the Arclay Forest had taken over the newspapers many weeks ago, even in the town Alan used to live this news was spread. The victims were halve eaten. Just like the students today. That could never be a coincidence.

As far as Alan knew the Special Tactics and Rescue Service, S.T.A.R.S., was send out to investigate. He could not completely remember what the outcome of it was, but he knew that the S.T.A.R.S. were dissolved and suspended. What could they have found out? Something that had to do with this disaster here?

„Yeah I remember…but this cannot be the cannibals from that time…the police chief said that the investigations were ceased because the murderers were shot when they attacked the S.T.A.R.S. in the Forest. There were articles about newly found bodies, but according to the police the bodies were already old…". Diana had big eyes and you could almost see how the shocking truth came to her mind.

„They were lying…", Alan put her thoughts in words. „The murderers, if that's what you wanna call these freaks out there, were not shot. As I said…you cannot trust the authorities… all corrupt."

The atmosphere turned colder. Alan really liked to know who would have the money and force to get such an control over the authorities, but in fact there only was one possibility.

„Well, I think I am done.", Ben interrupted the serious talk on the table causing Alan to come nearer.

The small wimp had a number of test-tubes lined up in a wooden stand, all of them had different colors, varying from yellow to blue.

„Got something useful?", Alan asked starring at the tubes.

„Yes, I hope so. In this tube I mixed up some nitro and glycerin. This should give quite an explosion, but as you surely know: nitro-glycerin is very sensitive. If you don't handle it with care it'll explode right away.", Ben explained.

Alan nodded slightly annoyed, of course he knew what nitro-glycerin would do if you'd shake it.

„And the other tubes?", Diana asked interested.

„I found some other stuff. Some acids and pure alcohol, they could be used as additional …weapons if we have to… kill.", his voice was embarrassingly weak. Alan could see that this boy would break down when he had to kill one of his former friends.

Alan sighed deeply and thought of a suitable way to get rid of that boy, maybe he should just leave him inside of that room? But on the other hand, his skills and knowledge could still turn out to be useful.

Toni meanwhile stood at the window not far away from the group and stared outside, she could no longer see the dead students in the yard because the daylight was fading already.

„Damn its turning dark… we'll have to hurry…", she said.

„Yes, it'll be a lot harder to avoid these things in the darkness…", Rick mentioned.

Alan nodded and took the scythe from the corner he left it. „We leave."

„Um…who wants to take the nitro?", Ben asked nervous and looked at the liquid that would explode through the slightest shock.

Silence spread in the room as all of them seemed to think of the extreme risk that came with that task. They would have to get to the main entrance from here, that was quite a distance and with the nitro they could impossibly run. One false step could mean death…

„Hand it over", Alan growled annoyed and stretched out his hand.

„No. I'll do it…", Diana interrupted and quickly took the tube. „Alan and Rick have to defend us and Ben could maybe help them with these chemicals. Toni has the pepper-spray. That leaves me without a function…"

„No!…", Toni tried, but a sharp look of her best friend made her shut up.

Alan raised one eyebrow, he was pretty surprised.

_That girl has more guts then I thought…would be a shame if she'd get herself killed._

Diana carefully held the tube in her hand, and tried not to move her hand in any direction.

„Alright, lets go…", the blonde boy commanded.


	9. Chapter 8

-17)

Rick had to swallow hard when he drew the axe from the head of one of the „zombies", it had turned the skull and brain of the former student to nothing more but a bloody mess. The view of all that blood reminded him of his fathers death all the time, but that was not even halve as bad as having to kill real humans, or former humans or whatever they were. His lunch really fought to say „hello".

The zombies must have sniffed them or something like that, because when they left the chemic-room at least five of them were already waiting, leaving Alan and himself with no choice but to attack and kill them. Since Diana could not run with the nitro in her hand they could not avoid them like before.

Rick knew that it had to be done, it might even free them of this terrible fate they were suffering, but he just could not like killing these things.

_Of course you cannot, it would be insane to enjoy this…but you have no choice…_

He sighed and watched Alan killing another one of them with a simple horizontal slice of the scythe, decapitating it easily. The face of the blonde boy showed no emotion he stopped the scythe and resumed walking as of nothing happened. It obviously was no problem for him to kill the zombies.

At least that was what had helped them making their way to the ground floor again already. It were only a few meters to the entrance and everything was working pretty fine. Alan and himself walked in front of Diana and kept all the zombies away from the girl while Toni and Ben flanked her from behind in case of a surprise attack.

„We almost did it…hold on.", Toni whispered to Diana who had many sweat-pearls on her forehead. She was holding the nitro like a hand-grenade without the safety-stick.

Rick concentrated on each sound in the corridor and could hear many, really many, zombies moan in front of them in a crazy chorus.

But he almost missed the hungry sighing behind the group, it was only thanks to his instinct that he turned just before Toni screamed.

„Damn!!", Alan hissed and rotated on the point he was standing, but Rick knew that he would come to late and even if he could reach the zombie in time the scythe was much to long to swing it without hitting Toni or Diana.

The zombie was a really fat boy, almost twice as wide as Ben and wore a black leatherjacket. Rick knew the boy, he was called „Edge" by some of the students, a bully who used to terrorize students like Ben.

Such people had no honor, but still no one really deserved to end up like that.

From the angle of his eye Rick could see that the former victim of that fat guy, Ben, was courageously stepping in front of Diana and took something from his pocket.

_What the…? _

„Step back!", the small boy said and the next thing Rick could see was the reflection of the halogen light on something flying.

The flying object landed directly in the face of the fat zombie and broke into shards of glass and a yellowish liquid.

_The acid! He said that he had some of that stuff with him!!_

Alan stopped next to Ben and threw a quick glare at the small boy, then watched the zombie again. The liquid began to hiss and „Edge" moaned deeply as the acid began to burn away his skin. The body collapsed only seconds later.

Ben looked at it with a hateful look. „100 pure hydrochloric acid dissolves everything…now you are no longer such a strong guy, eh!!?", he shouted with shaking voice.

The boy really must have had terrible problems. Rick touched his shoulder comforting.

„Good work, Ben.", he said.

„…yes…", the boy replied sorrowful.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diana sighed exhausted.

She was so damn sleepy and nervous. First she witnessed her whole class being slaughtered, then ran through the school and now she was carrying this little tube filled with liquid death. She had managed to keep it from exploding for the last ten minutes but it had been very close recently. If it would not have been for Ben she'd be dead already.

_Small weak Ben, eh? _

It were only a few meters to the exit now and Diana could hear them. The walking dead were crying and moaning directly from that direction they were walking to.

Many of the bodies they had seen when they left their classroom were gone now and Diana exactly knew where they were.

…_they want out as well…_

„You hear these bumps? Like they are punching something hard…what could…?", Toni started but then she seemed to realize. „God, no. That is the door, right? We absolutely cannot let them out here, they could destroy the whole city!!"

„Yeah…big loss…", Alan commented silently.

„What did ya just say?", Toni growled at him.

„Nothing…but actually we will have to kill them anyway. They are blocking the way out.", the boy replied while the group was starting to move again.

They quickly walked around the last corner and Diana finally could see why the corridors had only very few zombies walking through them and her knees almost broke away under her.

At least sixty of this terrible decayed monsters were standing right in front of the door and pushed against it to get out. The door was holding them back but the angles already looked pretty broken.

„Shit…this is not possible…", Toni stuttered.

„No, its real. This place must be hell…", Rick moaned and threw a gaze at Alan, who leaned the scythe against one of the lockers in the corridor.

„Hell, eh?", an evil smiled hushed over the blonde boys lips as he turned to Diana and took the tube from her hands carefully.

„Then I'll show then them a true devil…"

Diana sighed out of relief that the tube was out of her hands but she was kind of disoriented by Alan's funny talk. It sounded a bit like the boy really had big mental problem. But at the moment she was just to absorbed by the events in front of her eyes to give it more thoughts.

She saw the blonde boy storming forward recklessly until there were only a few meters between himself and the army of zombies, it was true miracle that the nitro did not blow up already. The creatures noticed him but they could not even turn quick enough for what was about to happen.

Diana saw the tube flying above their heads and saw how it dove into the crowd.

„Take cover!!", Rick shouted and Diana felt his hand pulling on her, ripping her off her feet, into one of the classrooms along with Toni and Ben. Funnily louder then any of the moans and cries she could hear the glass hitting the ground.


	10. Chapter 9

-1Ah a new reader, that's great. And I am glad you like Alan. He is a complicated one that's for sure. And actually I am pretty surprised that he has a fan already, he is not really the person you would like. But that is exactly why I like him

8)

Alan woke up lying on some kind of dirty plastic floor. Some blood was dripping from his forehead, and he had a bad tingling in his ears, a high pitched sound like a tinnitus. He must have been hit by a piece of garbage that flew around from the explosion and lost consciousness.

Well, he should have thought of cover before throwing bomb, but he did not think, right?

_Stupid…_

He got himself up from the small space between the student lockers, where he had jumped in the last second, and rubbed his ears to get lose of the aftereffect of the sound wave.

A headache was coming he could feel it. He definitely needed some sleep and some food, but that would have to wait. First he'd have to check how many of this bastards were still alive now.

His eyes fixed on the entrance and he saw the result of his effort.

_Holy crap…_

The view was really nothing for a weak stomach. The nitro had blown off directly in the center of the crowd and literally ripped it apart. Limbs were lying everywhere and blood had colored all walls in a dirty red. The few zombies, who had not been ripped apart had been thrown against the walls by the shockwave with such an intense force that their bodies where squashed. None had survived the detonation.

_Good…_

„Bluargh…"

The annoying sound of someone throwing up disturbed his sick fascination and knew that it was the one girl who definitely had a weak stomach.

„That is awful…", Diana commented the scene much more controlled then her friend. She clapped Toni's back, who was still coughing up even if she had nothing more to get out.

„It is indeed…", Rick sighed.

„God, I did this…?", Ben whispered holding his hand in front of his mouth. Alan was not really sure if that was a sad or an excited tone the boy used. He was acting very weird lately. Especially when he saved the girl.

„Yes, you did. You gave this poor guys peace…", Rick returned comforting. „I cannot even imagine how horrible it must be to be one of them."

_Oh please…not a teary monologue on the pros and cons of being undead…_

„Should be heading out now…", Alan commanded the group, he held his hurting head and pressed his hand on the small wound to stop the bleeding.

Diana nodded while she helped her friend to her feet again. The dirty blonde girl was still choking, but it got better.

„…we really made it…hope the police is already there…", Ben said.

_Stupid. We would have heard the sirens then…there is no police out there…_

The door was pretty much finished from the explosion it only took Rick and Alan a hard kick to make it fall from its angles. The wooden door landed outside with a loud breaking noise.

Alan stepped out and thus he was the first one to see it and even the cool boy was shocked.

„Oh god…", Toni gasped.

End of Act I


	11. Chapter 10

-1Act II: Various kinds of demons

1)

Five years ago a story spread throughout all of America. A boy with the name Marcus Masters achieved his degree in bio-chemic at the feeble age of only thirteen. He was the ultimate genius of his decade. His perfectly normal parents could only be amazed by his impressive intellect and had high hopes for his future.

Two years later no one really remembered about that boy, he disappeared into thin air right after he was invited to an interview at Umbrella Pharmaceutics. He was made a great offer that no one could have possibly rejected: Limitless resources for research on Umbrella's most important medications.

For someone of his age it was really thrilling to be wanted by the biggest Pharmaceutics Corporation, it did not cost him much thoughts to leave his family and start working for Umbrella.

He did not know that he made a contract with the devil itself.

The work however had not been that thrilling after all. He only worked in a laboratory in Paris and developed one after another of great medications. But that simply was not enough to satisfy his enormous hunger for knowledge and research, thus he asked his superior for a different place.

Surprisingly for Marcus his superior seemed to have been waiting for his request already.

That was the day when the boy learned about the true power of Umbrella.

He was invited to the T-Virus project.

Apparently there was a part of Umbrella that went under the name White Umbrella, it was the true core of the whole corporation, responsible for creating bio-weapons via the use of the so-called Tyrant-Virus.

This magnificent virus was able to reconstruct the DNA of almost any living object, it could vitalize tissue but also destroy it. Umbrella had now been researching on this virus for over fifty years but still its great powers were not completely uncovered.

And thus the boy started his own research, but like one of the original founders, James Marcus, he soon came to the realization that animals were not fit to be carriers of the virus. They were much to hard to control and there intelligence was too low.

His superiors were delighted by his work to this point and they seemingly had no problem with his request for human guinea pigs.

He was soon not even more able to hear the screams of the guinea pigs when the virus transformed their DNA. They were no humans to his eyes anymore, they were just disposable objects needed for his research.

The main task he was given had to do with the strongest series of Bio-Weapons Umbrella had at this point: The Tyrant. It was a human, who was transformed with the T-Virus into the ultimate soldier. A true hulk with the strength of an elephant. There was only one weakness which absolutely had to be removed. His mind was much to low, and it was almost uncontrollable. Umbrella therefore wanted a Tyrant that would be able to fulfill complex mission, including the use of weapons.

That really was a great challenge for the boy, but he knew that he could do it.

The problem was the T-Virus itself. It degenerated the mind of a human carrier much too strong, thus there was no possibility to create a Tyrant with the required intellect using the T-Virus only.

But Marcus had another idea. He wanted to create a second being, a parasite with a much stronger mind, that would take control of the host's body completely.

A brilliant idea, as his superiors called it, that immediately gave the young boy at the age of only sixteen the control over his whole laboratory. He needed one and a halve years until he finally was able to construct the perfect parasite. Based on the research of James Marcus on leech-DNA and his own achievements on jellyfish-mutations, he was able to produce a hybrid of both life-forms, a parasite as small as an amoeba: The NE-Alpha.

The result of injecting these cells into a mass-produced Tyrant was far better then anyone could have hoped. The new Tyrant was more intelligent then any other B.O.W. had ever been. It could easily handle complex weapons like an rifle or an rocket launcher, it could be trained to fulfill a certain mission and would never stop. Everything in its way was destroyed. This relentlessly earned the new B.O.W. his nickname. Nemesis, the goddess of vengeance.

This great achievement once again helped the boy climbing the social ladder in Umbrella's management. He was assigned to the most important laboratory for Umbrella: The Raccoon City project.

Marcus had almost every second of his work been compared to the chief-researcher in Raccoon, the famous William Birkin, and he really was annoyed by it. He thought that working side by side with him might help the others to understand who was the greater genius. Thus the boy was transferred back to his home-country and started working with Birkin. That was the worst time of his life.

Birkin could not accept the boys intellect that was far above his own, thus Marcus was always excluded from every relevant decision and soon started to hate this arrogant researcher and his stupid G-Virus project, which he would never have completed without the NE-Alpha parasite Marcus brought from Europe, of course.

Actually if it would not have been for the parasite and the being called Lisa Trevor, Birkin would not even know about the G-Virus yet. Still the boy was ignored and thus he worked on his own projects.

After the incident at the Arklay laboratory the management of Umbrella needed someone taking care of the annoying S.T.A.R.S.. As the police chief was too incompetent to handle this, Marcus was asked to take care of it. Thus he constructed one of his magnificent Nemesis-Tyrants and gave it a simple target.

„S.T.A.R.S.!"

Normally it would still have been problematic to release the „goddess" in a fully populated town, hard to conceal its attacks, but fate was on his side. Unfortunately it wasn't on Raccoon's.

The outbreak of the T-Virus happened only days after Birkin was shot down by a squad of Umbrella, because he denied to give up his G-Virus. That idiot really thought he could keep his achievements for himself. Actually it might even have worked, if it would not have been for a very loyal subordinate of Umbrella, who might have had a small grudge on Birkin.

Even now the boy had to smile when he thought of it.

Anyway the city about three miles above his head was now lost. The outbreak happened yesterday and the rate of victims increased exponentially. There was no chance for most the citizens to survive the carnage. Over night the zombies increased from hundreds to thousands and the police was obviously helpless. The only thing they could be trying to do was sealing the city.

Most of the researchers already left the laboratory, well apart from those who were now zombies themselves of course.

Now Marcus laid back in his expensive chair in his office and watched some of the monitors. He saw some of his former colleagues stalking through the corridors of this laboratory. He really enjoyed seeing them in this shape. Not one of them had treated him with the respect he deserved.

_Rot slowly you bastards…_

But actually they were meaningless to him now. He had done what he needed to do: The Nemesis was on its way. The S.T.A.R.S. would all die a slow and painful death thanks to him, now Marcus only had to get out of the city. The problem was that he could not use the Evacuation Train in the basement-level of this laboratory, because he neither had the master-key for the elevator nor the confirmation disc for the storage. That stupid Birkin and his bitch were the only ones to carry these items with them. Birkins body disappeared, right after he was killed and Annette might still be lurking somewhere in the RPD or laboratory, but she was dangerous and crazy he had no interest in dealing with her.

Thus there only was one possibility: He'd have to reach the other laboratory under the Raccoon Bank, with all these zombies running around up there this was not an easy task, but at least the laboratory had a big armory with more then enough ammunition to take out any zombie in his way. He had thought to take one of the Hunters as a bodyguard with him, but he did not trust their ability to follow his orders. They were wild animals after all. If he would have the time to produce another Nemesis it would be a different story. There was no better bodyguard in the world.

_Well, time to go…_

With a last sigh he raised from his chair and grabbed the small handgun from his desk. He was not really experienced with weapons, but there was not much to know about aiming and pulling a trigger, right?


	12. Chapter 11

-12)

Apocalypse.

The only word nearly capable of describing this was Apocalypse: The end of all hopes and all light.

The streets were flooded with endless streams of cars, some burning, some already burned out.

Corpses of citizens were lying next to the cars or hanging out of destroyed windows. A terrible smell of burned flesh and fuel was filling the lungs of the few survivors. A young woman sat on the walkway and cried while a man of her age, her husband or lover, held her in his arm.

A big man in a brown suit just helped his daughter out of a car. He looked much more terrified then his daughter.

That were as many survivors as Alan could see from the point he was standing.

_And these few won't live much longer… _

None of the cars could move anymore, the streets were totally jammed with wrecked ones and some police-made barricades. Alan could not see any zombies here, but it was obvious that they had been here not long ago.

So he had been right after all. The zombies that attacked the school came form the streets, that was why the first zombies were no students. He did not tell the other, because he didn't want to rob them their last hopes. That would have made them totally useless.

_This all must have started this morning, there was no time to warn the civilians. The monsters were as quick as they were efficient._

The white-blonde boy rubbed his already tired eyes to be sure that he was seeing the truth, but nothing of it disappeared. Thanks to the big fires everywhere even in the starting darkness everything was visible.

„God…please someone tell me I am having a terrible nightmare…", Diana gasped next to her, she quickly sat down on the stairs, most likely because she would almost have fainted, she took some deep breathes, but had to cough afterwards. The smoke really hurt in the throat.

Ben sat down next to her, with a much more stable expression on his face, as if he could simply accept all this.

„I am afraid, but this is not a dream.", he said with shaking voice.

Alan walked to the edge of the first step, still holding the scythe in his right hand.

„Right. This is plain reality. Get used to it", the boy said calmly. „If you want to survive, that is."

„Well spoken.", Rick stepped in. „We will have to accept this. Denying that it is real will only get us killed."

„Fine. I believe it is real.", the annoying Toni pressed out. „But tell me fearless leader: What the hell are we doing now?"

Alan knew she meant him with „leader", but he did absolutely have no interest in this responsibility. They should take Rick, he was intelligent and strong. He just wanted to get out of this city.

_But actually you know that you can't turn them down now, right? They will all die, if you leave them. That, you cannot let happen. Your sense of responsibility will not allow that._

_So are you up to the task? Will you be what they see in you? Will you lead them through this apocalypse?_

He really hated when his inner voice was right. He had this stupid sense of responsibility, because his mother taught it to him, he could not deny it.

„I want to look after my parents. They surely are save, but I want to see it with my eyes.", Ben said while he stood up again. „If you don't want to come with me I understand that."

The glance of manliness in the boy's voice almost made Alan feel respect. Almost.

„Idiot, if you're going alone you'll die quickly".

„I am going with him. I want to look after my mother, too", Rick supported the wimp.

„Yes, me too", Diana said and raised from the stairs.

„Of course.", Toni added.

Alan sighed deeply, asking himself again why he decided to hang with these idiots. Their parents were as dead as his own most likely were. For normal people to survive this carnage was like a miracle, even for himself to survive was nothing but luck. But still he would have to thank „them", now.

_DON'T THINK OF THAT!!!! _

He once again bit his tongue to get rid of these thoughts and concentrated.

„Alright boys and girls, enough of this pathetic talk. This is a battle for your very own life, you should understand that. We are not the heroes here. We are not to rescue anyone. You wanna go find your parents? Fine, but use your brains!"

„What are you trying to say, you idiot?", Toni growled. „That we should just think that our parents are dead and live on?"

Alan's cold expression flickered a second, he could not really understand her, but thinking of his mother and sister made him sad, somehow.

„Yeah actually that'd be the best", he gave back. „But since you wouldn't do that. We should at least do it right."

„Your point?", Toni said impatiently.

„This city will be overrun by these things, if Benny's theory of this curse-mumbo-jumbo is correct every citizen will be killed in the next days. Meaning that we don't have infinite time left. If you all want to look after your mommy and daddy one after another we will most likely not make it."

„Aha…", Toni's foot tipped up and down nervously.

„Thus I say we spilt up.", Alan came to the point. He knew that this would shock them, frighten them. But it was the only way, plus smaller groups could avoid the monsters easier.

He looked along the group. Uncertainty in all eyes. They did not know if they were doing the right thing. They wished they could just run away and hide somewhere, but they knew they couldn't.

Rick was the first one, who got his voice back.

„And how did you plan this? I mean, how do we spilt?"

„The only thing rational is that both you and me take one team. We have the weapons and the strength to wield them. Then you'll take Benny for his knowledge and Diana should be a useful support, too."

Well, actually that was only a assumption, but Diana was mentally pretty strong and that could really proof useful for Rick.

„Wait a sec. So I am gonna hang with you? No way!!" Toni grumbled. „Why can't I go with Rick, eh?"

Alan took her hostility coldly. „Because I cannot punish Rick with such an annoying shrew. You called me leader, right? So deal with my decisions or go and die."

„But…!", she tried but then the words stuck in her mouth and she was silent again.

_Maybe its not that bad to be leader after all? At least she is quiet now…_

Rick sighed deeply. „Alright fine, I'll go with Ben and Diana and look after their parents. You go with Antonia and look after hers and your parents."

Alan nodded. „Whatever happens, we will meet up in 72 hours and find a way out of here. Don't forget to look for anything suitable as a weapon, even if you'd have to break a door or window. You can never have enough weapons or ammo."

„Okay, and where's the rendezvous point?", Rick asked

„Any suggestions? I don't know this city…", Alan returned.

Benny stepped closer. „The RPD. If the cops could stop at least some of the zombies we should be saver in there."

_As if the police could stop these things…_

But he nodded anyway. There could still be some good weapons in there if all the cops are killed.

„Alright, in 72 hours at the RPD."

„Hope we meet again", Rick said and stretched out his hand.

Alan looked at it for a time, then he grabbed it.

The two girls hugged each other with tears in their eyes and swore to see each other again, before they separated.

After everything was settled the two groups eventually split up and walked off in different directions.


	13. Chapter 12

-13)

From the journal of Antonia Williams:

_September 25 1998, Day I, Mister Dudley's Kiosk_

_I don't know if any one will ever read this, but since I got my hands on a pencil and a sketchbook I thought I should write a few lines, for the case that… we don't make it._

_Anyway my name is Toni Williams, I am seventeen and live a normal life in Raccoon City: Attending school, going out and meeting friends, just as anyone in my age would. But my normal life ended this morning._

_Well, I suppose you now know better then me what actually happened here, I only know that my school was attacked by a group of „zombies". They killed almost everyone, only me and four others managed to survive and finally fought our way out of the school onto the streets. But we had to kill some of our schoolmates on the way…_

_That was pretty much like „crawling from one hole into another". The city was devastated. Many citizens were killed and we were sure that it would only get worse, so we decided to split up, look after our parents and then make a way out of the town. _

_Now, that was the story until now. I am now sitting in Mister Dudley's Kiosk with my …partner. Alan Riley._

_I have the really great luck to be stuck together with the most arrogant, stupid, cold and rude bast…_

„Hey, what are you writing there?", the most arrogant, stupid, cold and rude bastard asked. He was lying back at the wall opposite to the entrance. It was now nearly ten PM of the same day. Right after Toni and Alan separated from the others, Alan decided that it was much to dangerous to walk through the town at night, since they still did not know much about the „zombies". Who said they could not see in total darkness, or had the smelling sense of a dog? And anyway it was late enough, both of them were exhausted from the events in the school and they had to eat something.

Luckily the kiosk of Mister Dudley was very close. Toni knew Dudley from her childhood. He had always given her sweets for free or spared the last copy of her favorite magazine for her. He was a good man, but he was gone now. When Alan broke the door they found no one inside. Either he managed to escape in time or he was killed somewhere. Whatever it was, inside the small store they found some food, mainly chocolate-bars and soft drinks, and even a small tablecloth that they could use as a blanket during night.

And it was here where Toni found the pencil and sketchbook to write her journal.

„Nothing you'd be interested in…"

…_stard. _

_Well I have to get some sleep now. I hope I will wake up tomorrow and this has all been just a dream._

„Right, but I don't need you tired tomorrow, you should sleep now.", the blonde boy gave back and rolled on the side.

Toni had herself covered under the cloth, put the small sketchbook next to her and laid back. Luckily it was still pretty warm for September, so she would not have to sleep close to him like in these stupid love movies, where a love is born from such extreme situation.

Before she finally was overwhelmed by sleep she thought of her parents, she so wanted to know how they were, and what they were doing right now.

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The moon stood high already when Rick finally found a hideout for his group. An abandoned Boutique in the uptown. On their way here they had seen more survivors and most of them had gathered in groups to escape as quick as possible. At least they still had enough brain not to try it alone.

Rick, Diana and Ben therefore walked through some streets on their way to Ben's parents , they had decided to look after his first, because they were both working for a big office of Umbrella at the far end of uptown and since they should not have been able to leave the office, they should be still there. The way there was not that long. They should reach it early next morning.

Rick tried the light-switch, but it wouldn't work.

„Great, someone must have destroyed the wires. Well, it would not have done anything good anyway. Possibly it would even have lured them here", he commented. Then he turned around and blocked the door with a durable coat hanger.

Diana walked through the dark room looking at some of the dresses and clothes that were hanging everywhere.

„To think that I used to shop here only two days ago…impossible…".

„Yeah…", Ben agreed, „It is impossible…still I think there is a reason for all this. And a reason why of all the students only we five survived."

„Your right, Ben. It was fate that we were brought together.", Rick smiled back, „We have a job to do."

Diana smiled at the boys. „And what does our fate say about eating? I am starving…"

„It was pretty smart to loot the supermarket on our way here", Rick responded and took a small blue pack from his back.

On their way here they had met some zombies, a group of about three of them, but luckily they were able to run from them and on this run they had found a supermarket with an opened door. Some of the food had already been taken, but it was still plenty left, so they filled some backpacks, which where on sale too.

„We got sandwiches, chocolate-bars and some fruit."

Diana sat down on the pretty soft carpet of the boutique and crossed her legs. „I'll have a sandwich, then.", she said.

And after a few minutes all three of them sat on the still warm floor and chewed on something. Rick's watch already showed 11 PM when they finally turned to sleep, covered under luxurious fur coats, that would never be bought anymore.

„Good night.", Diana whispered.

„G-good night…", Ben gave back, he sounded kinda nervous. But under this circumstances it was surely understandable.

„Sleep well.", Rick returned and shut his eyes.


	14. Chapter 13

-14)

He really had a problem, a big problem.

It was seven AM of the 26th September and Alan Riley was in big trouble.

He woke up about two minutes earlier by a funny sound from somewhere in the kiosk, in which they had slept during this night. The sound of slow shuffling steps.

It was only thanks to his trained senses that he was not dead yet, but there still was a pretty good chance he would be.

The zombie coming from the rooms behind the counter was a bald, big man in his late 40's. He wore jeans, a shirt and an apron above that. It surely was the owner of this store, Mr. Dudley

Alan grabbed the scythe, but quickly recognized that there was not enough space here to use it.

But that was not the best part yet. While all of this happened and thousand thoughts went through Alan's head this damn crazy girl was still SLEEPING! He could not halve way understand how anyone could sleep with this loud moaning of the zombie.

„Hey!!", he shouted in her direction while he looked around for another weapon. There was no chance of running, not only that his partner was playing Sleeping Beauty, but he had blocked the door really good, no way to open it quickly.

„HEY!!!", he barked this time, while the zombie already reached the counter. Luckily they were as stupid as they were dead. The thing just continued walking without noticing that he was not moving forward anymore, but soon it would notice. Some of the thick sweet-glasses rolled down the counter and landed on the ground, but they did not break.

Alan was fed up with this game, he quickly kicked the arm of the sleeping girl pretty hard.

She screamed from the pain and the shock, he eyes opened wide, she breathed wildly. „What?", she screamed and looked around disoriented. It would take her some time to remember where she was.

„Stand up, already!!", Alan barked while he was still looking for a weapon.

They really needed some distance weapons, a handgun at least, but here was nothing only comparable here, they'd really have to get some if they survive here.

„What is going on?", the girl asked while she stood up. She really must have missed the moaning until now, but now she saw the zombie and stumbled back some steps.

„Mister Dudley?…", her voice trembled.

„Damn it, we need a weapon, girl. No time for old sympathies!!", he shouted.

The zombie finally found out how he could get to his prey and walked around the counter. Time was passing much too quick.

„That cannot be…please. Your not one of them, right?", Toni blabbered, tears ran down her cheeks.

She walked two step in the zombies direction slowly until she stood next to the counter, she sniffed and sobbed deeply.

„What the heck are you doing?!!!", Alan screamed just as the zombie turned to her and raised his arms to grabbed the girl.

„Ugh!!", the dead man said. And that were his last words.

One of the thick heavy glasses collided with its face and broke several of the bones. The zombie landed on the ground. Toni stood above him, still crying, still holding the heavy glass in her hand.

„Your not him!! You're a monster, just a brainless monster. Dudley is dead!!"

The Zombie moaned and tried to stand up again, but the girl was already above him and landed a crushing strike with the glass on the zombies forehead.

A bloody wound opened and the skull obviously was broken in this area, but that damn thing still was not dead, it moved again, and Toni hit its head again. Once, twice, again and again.

„Die already!! Die!! Die!! Die!! Please die!!!", she screamed and didn't notice that the zombie was long dead. Its head was nothing more but a bloody pulp.

„Die!!", she still shouted and hit the dead body again.

Alan walked closer and quickly snatched her hands in midair. „Stop. It's dead. You did a pretty good job on it", he said admiring. But he knew that she was out of her mind.

„Let me go, its not dead, yet!!", she screamed trying to free herself from his grip.

He had no nerves to deal with a hysterical teenager now, so he quickly slapped her like he did in the school. She looked at him with big eyes, then she started to shiver and tears poured out of her eyes.

„Oh god!! What have I…what did I do?", she sobbed. „God, what did I do?"

She looked down at her bloody hands.

„Hey, I don't need this now, okay? You killed this thing, and that was the right thing to do. End of the story."

She did not response, she only stared at her hands and her shirt that was covered in blood, too.

„Come", he said and grabbed her hand again.

She did not refuse and let him direct her through the store into the rooms behind it. There was a small washroom for the employees, well for the one.

But the small sink was everything Alan needed.

„Wash yourself, get rid of the blood.", he said walking past her and leaned himself next to the door.

„I know it is hard…the first time…it is always hard", he said silently more to himself then to her.

The water was turned on, but he could still hear her cry over that sound.

Memories attacked his mind again, memories of what had happened six years ago. He almost would have needed to bite his tongue again. A method he used for the last five years now, but he did not need to. The girl was coming out of the washroom, her hands clean again and she had taken off her shirt. But she was not in the mood to be embarrassed, because he could see her in her bra.

„The daughter, she is my age. Went to school with me. Dead now. Maybe I'll find something fitting in her room.", she said with an absent expression.

„Yes, but hurry up a bit will ya?", he said and watched her walk further into the back part of the store.

_Maybe she now gets what it means to stay alive in this city…she had to learn it the hard way…_

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While a few kilometers north Toni Williams stumbled into the room of her former schoolmate Francine Dudley, her best friend Diana was already on the streets again. She was walking along Jack Street, a small street with a few houses very close to the boutique. The two boys flanked her right and left, Rick still with the axe in his hand and Ben holding one of his tubes.

_I really need a weapon…I want to be of some use too…_

It were luckily not as many zombies as Alan had presumed, it would take some more time before the whole city would fall, but eventually it would happen. Some survivors they had met this morning told them, that the city was closed off by the police and army. Nothing was coming out, nothing was coming in…

_Meaning that we will have to find another way…there must be one…_

The streets were all filled with wrecked cars and some bodies were lying around, most of them already too destroyed to become zombies. The terrible thing was that there was a destroyed police car crashed into a hydrant. The cop, who drove it, was lying next to it with deep bite wounds in its arms and torso. His hand was still formed like he had held a gun, but the weapon was gone. A survivor must have taken it already.

„God…even the police…", Ben sighed.

„No one could stop these things for ever…they gave their lives to save the citizens", Rick meant thoughtful and looked down at the dead body thoughtful.

Diana knew what he had to do. Ben had told them that the only possibility to kill a zombie for ever is to remove their heads.

„Close your eyes…", the black-haired boy said silently and raised the axe.

Diana quickly turned away, even though she knew that it was the right thing to do, she wondered if she had the strength to do it. Rick obviously hated to do it, but he wanted to spare them this extreme suffering of being an undead.

The only thing Diana could hear was one clean chop, a clanking noise when the blade hit the asphalt, then it was over.

Diana looked at Ben and saw the paleness in his face, he obviously did not look away, it was a true miracle how tough he boy could behave now.

„Let's go…we need new weapons.", Rick said looking at the axe in his hand, the blade was broken, most likely when it hit the hard ground. The axe was useless now.

_Oh damn…_

„There is a bar at the end of the street. My father was often there. Normally barkeepers have weapons right?", Diana suggested, while she tried not to look at the decapitated body on the ground.

Rick nodded. „Yes, this seems like our best chance."


	15. Chapter 14

-1Thanks again for the comments.

T-Blood: Yeah, I think you're right. My problem is just that when writing, I'm only concentrating on the story itself, not on the grammar.

Plus, english is not my native tongue and this stupid Word is not showing even halve of the mistakes. What I am trying to say is, that I would really need someone, who reads the text and finds the mistakes, which I miss.

5)

Toni sat on the bed of a dead girl, a dead girl with a dead father.

She knew that Mister Dudley's daughter was dead, or undead if you want to call it that, she was one of the first students she recognized when they left the classroom in school. That was one of the reasons she was thankful that Dudley had not been here when they arrived. Telling him about that would have been impossible.

Such a young girl, beautiful, with shining blue eyes and raven-black hair…killed so brutally…it was just unfair.

But in the end she did not have to tell him anything, right? She just had to crush his skull with a thick glass filled with sweets. Good deal, eh?

_You had no choice, he would have killed you, killed Alan, killed everyone… _

Her brain was obviously in self-defense mode to save her from losing her mind, but it was not really helping. She still felt guilty, and still hated herself. That was something she would have to get used to.

_How the hell could Alan live with that? He killed almost seventy people in the school with this bomb and yet he showed no regret. Can someone be so cold?_

He really must be an exception, a person born without any feelings…

The blonde girl sighed deeply and raised from the dead girl's bed, walking to the dead girl's wardrobe. She really would have liked to rest longer, but she could not allow herself to drown in self-pity. She had to find her parents, even if they were dead already. She wanted clarity, even if that meant she would have kill them, too.

Well, she was a cold blooded killer now, killing her own parents wouldn't change anything anymore. She would have to live with the guilt or get herself killed. That was her only choice.

The wardrobe of the dead girl was filled with many shirts, trousers, skirts and underwear, at least that was good.

Toni quickly chose a simple green shirt, jeans and even a new bra. Actually the one she was wearing was soaked with blood like her shirt. And that was not comfortable.

She quickly undressed and put on the new cloth. It was an odd feeling to wear a dead girl's cloth, but Toni was sure she would not mind anymore.

Before she left the room, she quickly searched it for a weapon, but only found an old leather backpack that was lying under the girl's bed. It surely would come in handy sometime, so she took it without even searching the pockets. It was too light to have anything useful in it.

A mirror on the wall next to the door showed her face, the paleness was going, but it would take time.

„Alright now Toni, get your ass down there and do your best to survive. Got it?", she said to herself and finally walked back to the door.

It was now eight AM and they really would have to go now.

The girl closed the door behind herself and walked down the stairs. A cracking sound of the old wood followed her until she came back into the store where her partner was already waiting.

„Didn't I say you should hurry…, this is not a camping trip, you know?", he growled, looking at her coldly.

„Sorry…had to focus again…", she gave back and already walked to the door.

The barricade which he had put up last night was now away and she quickly grabbed the handle.

„Hey, where do you think your going?"

„Outside of course…what did you think? I want to find my parents!"

He shook his head annoyed. „You still don't get it. With every hour that passes there are more of the creatures out there. If we don't load up on weaponry we won't even make it down the street."

Toni sighed deeply. She so hated when that guy was right. „Well, I know a gun shop, very close to the RPD. Its even on our way to my house."

„Good, hope the citizens did not loot it already. Lead the way."

Toni nodded and finally opened the door.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A glowing sign normally welcomed every visitor of the bar „Jack", it was in the typical neon-red with the four letters in huge size.

That was normally. Today the sign was broken, only one of the letters was still glowing and nothing was left of the great atmosphere that made this place famous.

Ben and his companions were standing in front of its front door and could feel the atmosphere of death all around.

_In the games this would be the place where the final boss waits…_

„We're going in?", he asked worried.

„Yes. If there are weapons inside we need to get them.", Rick returned and already walked forward.

_He definitely is the main character. The hero. Always strong and successful. The one who saves people like me…_

Diana swallowed loudly when Rick touched the handle of the old wooden door, it was surely made from oak or something similar expensive.

Suddenly the door flew open, it was only thanks to Rick's reflexes that it did not hit him directly into the face. Ben heard a scream from Diana as something came moving from within the bar and almost collided with her. The movement was much to quick for a zombie.

The figure stormed on without even noticing the three youngsters, Ben could only see that it was a human, a pretty lively human, a man with a yellow vest.

_Another survivor? And in total panic_

„Hey wait!!", Ben shouted after the man, just as he felt a hand on his shoulder.

Rick stood behind him and shook his head. „Let him run. He is totally in panic, overwhelmed by fear. He will get more in our way then help us."

Ben looked after the running silhouette and just before it disappeared in the next alley, he could see a symbol on the man's back. A symbol he had seen somewhere else. But where?

„S.T.A.R.S….", Diana gasped silently. „That was one of them…he had it written on his vest…"

Now Ben knew where he had seen the symbol. It had been shown in the newspapers when S.T.A.R.S. was dissolved. So that meant they were still in town? …And panicking like the rest of the citizens.

„Forget about him…he cannot protect us…", Rick sighed. „Let's go inside."

With this words he grabbed the door again and pulled it open.

„Be careful, maybe the cause for his fear is still in there…", he said over his shoulder before he entered the bar.

Ben had some trouble to see when he walked in behind the halve-Japanese, the one room of the bar was only lit by a weak lamp at the ceiling.

„There!", Rick walked to something on the floor. After Ben's eyes got used to the twilight he saw what Rick was looking at. A body.

„Is he dead? I mean, really dead?", Diana asked while she closed her nose with two fingers. The stench of death was really unbearable.

_In the movies the people always have this eucalyptus-crème against the smell…_

„Yes, actually… his head is missing…like it was blown off." What he did not mention was the huge pool of blood and pieces of meat that were decorating the ground and some of the counter. Ben was happy that he did not eat so much this morning…

Rick shook his head. „What a mess…on this account …this city has no future…".

„That is why we have to get out as quick as possible.", Diana nodded sadly.

Ben walked around the remains of the former human towards the counter. When there were any weapons still in here, they would be behind it.

„Hope that this S.T.A.R.S. guy did not take the weapons, yet.", Diana sighed and forced her eyes away from the dead body.

„Doubt it, he had a handgun, but not the kind of weapon a barkeeper would have.", Ben said. He saw the gun only for a second, but he could tell that it was a specially crafted gun.

He had sometimes stood in front of the town's gun-shop, Kendo's, and looked at the shining weapons on display.

Plus he had seen more then enough guns in those games that his mother hated.

The boy walked along the backside of the counter looking at the many bottles of liquor standing around. He would really have loved to get drunk now, but that would only worsen the situation.

Then he saw it. Right under the cash-register. A handgun.

„Got something.", he called at his comrades while he already grabbed the weapon.

He touched it carefully, holding the handle with only two fingers.

The weapon was a small revolver, six bullets of 9mm ammunition. It was fully loaded and a small box next to where it laid had another ten rounds.

„Now that really is useful.", Rick said and took the weapon from Ben. His eyes suddenly showed a horrible disgust when he looked at it. Ben did not understand, this weapon was mostly their best chance of surviving.

Rick turned to Diana and handed her the gun handle first. „You take it."

Diana stared at him with big eyes. „Me? What? Why me?"

_Exactly, what is he thinking? He should take it._

„You are the one among us with the calmest hand. Besides, I hate guns.", the halve-Japanese returned and gave her the weapon. „I am sure you can do it."

A convincing smile hushed over his lips.

„But then you don't have any weapon…", Diana tried while she took the gun and quickly pointed it to the ground.

Rick smiled calmly and walked past Diana towards a wall with a shelve hanging on it. Two billiard queues were placed in a mounting made for them. It was a bit funny that there was actually no table for billiard anywhere, but maybe it was in repair or something.

Ben watched as the black haired boy took the two queues from it and looked at them for a few seconds.

„Those will do", he said and broke both of the long wooden sticks over his knee to approximately one meter of length.

„You want to fight these monsters with two sticks?", Diana asked doubtful.

Ben suddenly had a strange feeling of déjà vu. This scene could easily have been taken from this series with the vampire-killing girl. Only difference was that their opponents were no vampires, but zombies. Just having this thought made all of it even more unrealistic.

„Trust me, until I find a decent weapon these sticks will be enough.", Rick answered and moved the sticks through the air like he was holding two swords. A swirling sound followed him.

„Alright, we have to go now.", he finally said and put the sticks into his belt.

The horror of the streets was awaiting them already.


	16. Chapter 15

-16)

The weapon-shop that Toni mentioned was exactly the one Ben used to hang out, looking at the guns.

Gunshop Kendo. This shop was normally run by two brothers Robert and Joe, like Rick they were halve-Japanese and excellent gunsmiths. Actually Joe even developed many weapons for the RPD, even for S.T.A.R.S. itself, and was a close friend to the S.T.A.R.S weapon-lunatic Barry Burton.

Those two were decent men, and like many others in the city they did not deserve what they got in the end.

But we're not that far yet, at the moment we just have the beginning darkness of the afternoon when Toni and Alan arrived at the shop.

There was no light inside and as both of the teenagers saw disappointed there were no weapons lying in the display window anymore. Alan had already reckoned with this. Most of the citizens would first of all want to get a weapon, if their neighbors were suddenly trying to eat them.

_Nothing like Armageddon for a good business, eh?_

Hopefully there still were some weapons inside, they really need anything that could take out those dead guys from distance.

The way from the small store of this Dudley-guy here took them most of the day, not only because the way was long, but because there were many zombies on the streets. Much more then last night, just as Alan had predicted.

Thus they had to take many detours through alleys or even through whole buildings.

Now it was already 5 PM and it was pretty dark already they would soon have to find shelter for the night.

The boy walked a few meters and tried the door. It was locked, of course.

„We'll have to break it", he said annoyed.

„Hey slow down, will ya? How about we try to knock first?", Toni gave back and stepped by his side. „You know, people in there might not like you breaking their safe door, huh?"

Alan rolled his eyes and let her past. He wondered if he would ever get used to her annoying goodliness. This was a fucking war and they had to do whatever was necessary to survive. When would she ever get this?

_Thought after killing that guy with her own hands she understood….well…think again…_

She knocked against the glass of the door with her knuckles and listened for any sound inside.

The boy leaned against the display window and crossed his arms. Of course no one would answer, they would not be so stupid to let anyone in and take that risk.

„Somebody out there?", a silent voice asked through the glass.

_Figures…_

„Yes, please let us in.", Toni said softly, her voice much nicer then when she was talking to Alan.

The boy rolled his eyes again. That girl was a good actor.

„Are you alone?", the male voice asked.

„Just the two of us", Toni whispered. „Please, we need your help."

_Stop whining already…that is embarrassing… we don't need help…we need weapons…_

„Wait a sec", the voice said.

Alan shook his head unbelievingly, that guy in there really was a big idiot. They could bring anything in from the streets.

The lock clicked silently and the door opened. Toni already stepped forward, just to be stopped by the barrel of a Remington shotgun. She gasped in shock and stumbled back.

„Don't shoot!!", she screamed, but Alan just walked between the gun and Toni and moved it out of his face slowly.

„Never point a gun at someone, if you don't know you can pull the trigger", the boy said icy and looked at the guy with the gun. It was a fat man in his late thirties, his shirt was already wrinkled with blood. His face looked greatly relieved when he finally seemed to understand.

„Sorry, boy, could not take any risks, y'know?", the man said apologizing. „Let's go inside, this'll be a lot safer."

„Yeah, that would be great", Toni replied still a bit shaky.

She surely never had faced a gun before. Hopefully she would be better in using them.

The fat guy locked the door behind them and quickly reached for a switch next to it. „You're really lucky, I just wanted to close the store." A stable shutter slowly lowered from somewhere above the display window and finally sealed it tight. That should be a pretty strong protection, at least for while.

„Damn, you kids must really be crazy running around like that…", the guy said and switched the light of the store on. The sudden flash hurt in Alan's eyes. He had spend to much time in the darkness already.

Quickly rubbing his eyes he managed to readjust and took the surroundings in as fast as he could.

There were three wardrobes in the front part of the shop, they all had special mountings for rifles and guns, but not one was still there. Same was with the show-case at the end of the room and the wall behind the counter.

_Damn it. There surely must be something left…if not…_

He took a look at the Remington in the guys hand. They might have to steal it from him, they needed a weapon at any cost. „We are looking for our parents…", Toni said and you could feel her depression.

„Anyhow, my name is Robert. And you are?", the man said, obviously avoiding this theme. He surely thought that it was nearly impossible that Toni's parents were still alive. He was a lot smarter then he looked.

„I am Toni Williams, and he is Alan Riley", Toni returned and started looking around in the shop like her partner did.

„You surely must be starving, If you want you can stay overnight. Got tons of canned food. Military reserves I bought."

Toni looked at the cold-blooded boy, her eyes said that she did not want to waste another second, but, as Alan would have explained if it would have been necessary: In a war like this you had to recover and eat enough. In their weakened and tired state they would only pose a great diner for the hungry undead out there.

Toni understood what he wanted to say and nodded tersely. „We gladly accept your offer.", she said and smiled at Robert.

„'kay. Follow me."


	17. Chapter 16

-17)

It was already late evening of the same day when Rick, Diana and Ben finally reached the alley that would lead them to the entrance of the Umbrella office. You really would not think of it being behind this dirty alley filled with garbage. Of course there would normally be other ways leading there, but the group found out pretty quick that all of them were blocked by cars or other barricades.

While he was walking past the big hill of garbage, Ben got more and more worried about his parents, they normally were working in a laboratory at the city-line, but for the last two weeks they had presented a new medicine to the sponsors of Umbrella and that had happened right here. Hopefully inside the office they were save. He sunk so deep in his thoughts that he did not really perceived the strong smell of gasoline coming from the garbage.

Rick opened a wooden door at the end of the alley and they entered another alley, but one that was crossed by a street this time. The problem was that this street was all over blocked with any stuff you could think of: Cars, a shining crank, a small red gas container and everything you could have found here.

_Good, maybe they really barricaded the way, so nothing could have come from another way then the door. They could be save in there. _

„There's the entrance", Diana pointed out while she carefully held the revolver downwards. She still seemed to feel uncomfortable with the weapon, but she did not complain.

The door was intact that was for sure. But after trying it, they found it unlocked.

_Who would be so crazy to let the door open when the zombies could come anytime?_

„Careful, we don't know what is inside."

„I'll go first", Ben said courageous while he took one of this last test-tubes with acid in his hand.

Rick nodded while he took the queues from his pockets.

The door opened silently without the slightest noise, it surely was oiled very often.

The first room, they walked in, was a small square foyer, bare of everything.

But there was a sound. Very silent, but it was there. Could have been the air-condition or the wind blowing through an open window. Or, and that one was terrifying, it could be someone breathing.

Ben walked through the foyer and suddenly stopped dead in his tracks.

He was directly looking into the barrel of an M4 Assault Rifle, a shining black weapon, which he recognized quickly by the compact format, that distinguished it from the M16.

„Freeze!!", a male voice shouted and woke up Ben from the shock that the sudden view had given him.

„Don't shoot!!", Diana screamed and dropped her weapon as quick as she could.

Ben raised his eyes until he met those of the man with the big weapon. It was a military guy, obviously. He wore a green jacket and camouflage-trousers with black boots. His black hair was wrapped by a green bandana. Unlike the rest of the people they met this day, he was completely unscratched and unharmed. Not even dirty. He could not be here for long.

„Get in! Now!", the guy ordered and pointed with the gun into the room.

The group slowly walked past him, hands up. They absolutely had no choice but to follow his orders until they found out more. Actually he could just have killed them already, if that's what he wanted.

They entered the main-room of the office. A big white table filled nearly halve of it, it was covered with papers and marketing-magazines of Umbrella.

The rest of the room was taken by shelves and lockers full of files which were pretty disordered for a manager's office.

Mounted on the wall behind the table was a monitor for the presentation of adverts and directly under that was the only other door in the whole office.

The soldier directed them to the table and ordered them with a gesture to sit down, then he lowered the rifle and exhaled deeply. „I don't know how the hell you made it to this place, but it's good that your 're here anyway. Once I gathered some other people I'll get you out of the city."

Ben's eyes opened to the size of plates. „Getting us out of the city? Excuse me, but who are you?"

The soldier smirked a bit. „Murphy Seeker, I'm with the UBCS."

„And what exactly is „UBCS"?", Rick asked in a mistrusting tone.

Murphy gave them a big grin, but the three could not really be sure, if it was meant friendly or superior. „Of course, you can't know that: UBCS is short for Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service. Simply put: We are here to save you civilians."

Diana's eyes started to get wet. „Really? Oh, thank god. So, the people outside of the town know about the disaster and will help?"

„Can't say actually. But I am pretty sure that it's not in the news. I first heard of this in my briefing for the mission."

„But…", Rick started. „…if you were send here it means you must know what caused this disaster. Something about a biohazard?"

Murphy shook his head. „Actually, no, we were only said that it most likely was an act of terrorism, but no one told us what we would be dealing with or how terrible it would be…"

Ben heard a slight touch of rage and hate in the soldiers voice, he definitely had seen awful things already, even though he was here for only a few hours.

„Tell me something." Ben took a deep breath. „Did you find any zombies here? Or corpses?"

_Please say no, please, pleasepleasepleaseplease… _

„No, this area was completely clean when I arrived, thanks to those barricades out there, I suppose. That's why I chose this place as a shelter."

„Any survivors?", Ben felt a bit relaxed. At least they might still live.

The soldier shook his head again. „You were the first people I have seen alive since I got separated from my team."

The small boy sighed deeply. He would not find his parents here. But he was sure that they could not have made it to their house in the outskirts, either.

They were surely already dead…

Funnily, he was not in the mood for crying or breaking down. Did he turn that cold? No, it was more that he felt that this was not the time to do something like that. He needed to stay alive and get out of the city, that was what his parents would want. Time to mourn for them would still be when he was miles away from Raccoon.

„Anyway, I prepared this area to be safe from almost everything lurking around here. Do you have a lighter?", Murphy asked.

The three shook their heads not really getting why he talked of that right now. Even though smoking would be the last thing killing you in this city right now, it seemed inappropriate.

„Look on the table, I found a bunch of lighters here."

It was actually a big box filled with countless lighters, they all carried the Umbrella logo. Give-away stuff for promotion, obviously. Everyone took one of them and put them into their pockets.

„And what are those for?", Diana asked.

„As I said I prepared the area, If something tries to get inside, you can seal the area completely. I soaked the alley with highly flammable gasoline. A small flame and everything will explode in an inferno. That should keep them on a distance or kill them. Meaning that you should be safe here until I return. So just stay and rest for the time being."

He shouldered his rifle again and went towards the entrance.

„Sorry, but we can not do that", Rick said in a calm voice.

The soldier turned in his tracks. „What are you saying? If your not staying here, you will die for sure."

Ben smiled slightly: „Even though, we have to go. We want to find our parents. And there are other people who wait for us. We just can't stay here and wait."

Murphy mustered him with a serious face. „Guess I can't lock you in anyway", he said and sighed while he fumbled at one of his pockets. „But I could at least give you a better chance."

He drew a handgun from his holster. It was a Glock 17, as Ben recognized, the normal equipment for special forces. Small, light, but with enough power to bring a human down with one bullet.

The soldier checked the weapon professionally and handed it to Ben afterwards. „You surely find out how to use it, it's pretty simple."

He opened another pocket and showed two full magazines for the weapon plus a full box of nine millimeter ammo. „I am sure I won't need that thing as long as I have this." He pointed to his rifle with a calm smile. Of course that man knew that every weapon was extremely precious in such a situation, but he willingly cut his own chance of survival to increase theirs.

Ben nodded. „Thank you, I know what that means."

„Kid, even with this weapon your chances are close to nothing. Out there waits hell of earth."

-----------------------

Robert Kendo did not know much about cooking: His spaghetti were not even halfway done and the tomato-sauce had almost no spice on it, but Toni was still glad to get something warm in her stomach. It was a thousand times more nutritious then chocolate-bars. And Toni actually had found that big guy a pretty nice one. He made jokes while he was cooking and laughed much more then anyone she had met in the last 48 hours.

„Thanks for the food, really nice of you.", Toni said after she finished her plate.

„Ha ha, you don't have to lie, I am not good at cooking. My brother normally takes care of that, while I take care of the customers."

Kendo suddenly shook his head. „Ah, what am I talking about? You surely aren't interested in my background-story, huh? You came here with a request, right?"

Alan nodded. „Exactly, we need firearms, something for range combat. Best would be a handgun."

Robert mustered the blue-eyed boy a few seconds, his face was more serious then before. He seemed to think about it.

„Well, you're a bit late, sorry. I gave away every weapon in the whole shop yesterday."

Toni sunk into her chair and sighed. Of course she was not delighted by the idea of shooting people, but they were dead already and she wasn't. It was as simple as that: kill or be killed. Alan had shown her that and she would not forget about it.

„We should go to bed now, I heard from some survivors that soldiers are running around the city. That means they will soon start the evacuation. Maybe tomorrow everything will look different. Ha ha ha."

A lie, a very simple lie, but it expressed all the hope that Toni still had in herself. The idea of just being rescued by a group of soldiers and flying out of the city with her parents and friends. That was much too good to happen.

„Yeah, sure…", she smiled.


	18. Chapter 17

-18)

The world turned into an inferno. The flames exploded in the blink of an eyelid. They ate away oxygen, garbage and the paint on the buildings.

The immense glow of the fire was reflected by the eyes of the three survivors. They stood still only halve a meter from the flames and the strong heat made them sweat extremely. Diana's whole body was shaking from adrenalin and pure shock. Her breathing was unnaturally quick and her heart pounded as if it wanted to break out of her chest.

„MURPHY!!!", she shouted into the flames, but there would not be any answer. Murphy was as good as dead. Even if he would still live, he could not get away from the office anymore: His own trap was now blocking the way. The events of the last twenty minutes still could not reach Diana's brain completely, it was so horrible, so perverted that she could not grab it as an actual event.

…„_I'll walk with you until I find more survivors. That is all I can do, if you won't stay here.", the soldier said while showing them another of those smiles. Diana was greatly relieved that this pro would be with them. He would protect them. If she could have known how quickly they would need his help, she would not have been so relaxed. _

_Before the group left the office, Diana checked the revolver and got a few hints on aiming and quick-reloading from the soldier. It might seem easy when people were using handguns in TV or cinema, but it was a whole different story when you actually felt the cold steel in your hand and pointed the barrel at something living. The recoil alone was complicated to handle._

_Surprisingly Ben had great knowledge on weapons as he had on every other subject. He just seemed to have some problems with the weight of it. _

„_Okay, now let's go. And keep an eye on your surroundings. Always keep in mind that those zombies are no longer human, they are dead, even though they're still walking. Don't even think of showing them any mercy."_

_Diana nodded along with her comrades. It was an unnecessary comment, they all knew that._

_Finally they walked towards the door carefully. Murphy had his M4 ready to shoot anything in front of them and Ben pointed his weapon to the floor. She held her own weapon in one hand only, but quickly adjusted herself and copied the soldier's moves. _

_The man opened the door and quickly panned right and left to check the area. „Safe.", he whispered over his shoulder. How wrong he was…_

_The group walked outside and quickly noticed that it was evening already, it was getting dark. Diana could smell a really bad odor in the air. Like a mixture of urine and blood, like if you were walking through a sewer where a serial killer just enjoyed his hobby. _

_This smell was not really unfamiliar to her. All Raccoon had it now, but there were no corpses here and no blood. She had thought of this as funny, but did forget about it quickly. _

_She had to focus._

„_The door.", the soldier said and made the three teenagers walk past him towards the wooden door leading to the alley again._

_No one could have reckoned with what happened then, or could she? Maybe Murphy would still live, if she had told them about the smell in time. _

_Rick just touched the handle of the door, when they heard this funny noise. It sounded like something was tapping on a hard surface. Diana and her comrades literally flew around and raised their weapons, but in their point of view was still only Murphy. He looked around, too. He definitely heard this noise._

_But there was nothing, nothing moving, at least on the ground. In the end it wasn't the perfectly trained soldier but the small Ben who saw the danger. Just a moment too late. „Above!!", he screamed, but when the word left his mouth „it" was already in the air aiming for the soldier on the ground._

_Diana only saw a greenish movement before it landed on Murphy. Nothing Diana had ever seen was comparable to this creature. It had six extremities like an insect, an exoskeleton and was the size of an average human. Every limb ended in a big claw and its head had four eyes. This was not an unknown insect that had lived in Raccoon and know showed his face nor was it a zombie, this was a monster. _

_A damn monster-bug._

_Murphy screamed as it landed on him, the sharp claws hacked into his body, blood sprayed in every direction. _

_The soldier crumbled under the pain, but he was still conscious. Diana raised her revolver, but she was afraid of shooting Murphy, for Ben it seemed the same. _

_With a squealing noise the bug moved its head towards Murphy's stomach and bit right into the flesh. _

_The soldier screamed again and tried to hit the bug with the butt of his rifle, but he no longer had the strength of fighting this thing off like this._

_He managed to turn the rifle and pressed the barrel against the body of the impossible bug. _

_His finger writhed around the trigger and somehow found enough strength to press it. _

_The tatatatat of the M4 freed the others from their paralysis. They saw the bug flying away and slamming against the opposite wall. It sunk together and stayed on the ground. Dead as it seemed._

_Rick reached the soldier first, he wanted to help him to his feet again, but Murphy pushed him away and managed to stand up by himself._

„_Idiots!! Run already!!", he pressed through his teeth, his face deformed by extreme pain. Diana saw the wound in his stomach and the green liquid that was dripping from it. Some drops landed on the ground and hissed. It was a form of acid, obviously. She could not even imagine the pain the soldier must suffer from right now. But she knew that he was dying, his inner organs were dissolving._

„_I s-said r-run!!!", he coughed out again and weakly pointed to the wall. Not only the lying bug was moving again. There were three more who came crawling down the wall now. _

_Diana's heart skipped beat, she couldn't breath anymore. _

_The barrel of the M4 suddenly swung around and pointed at them. „HOLY CRAP!!! GO, OR I'LL SHOOT YOU MYSELF!!!!!!", he shouted desperately. _

_Rick finally nodded and grabbed both Diana and Ben at the hands dragging them with him to the door. Diana felt bad for leaving him behind, but they had no choice. He was as good as dead. The best thing he could do was shoot himself. _

_She had not known this man long and she actually did not know anything about him, but he was a man, that gave his life for others. Tears started to pour from her eyes._

_A good man, no matter what he did before Raccoon._

_Rick ripped the door open and pulled both of them through it. They were back in the alley and the door closed behind them, the sound of gunshots was lowered and so were the screams of Murphy, the guy who saved their lives._

„_The lighter!! He prepared the alley!!", Ben shouted while they still ran towards the end of the alley. _

_When they finally reached the end of the area Ben already had one lighter in his hand._

_The next thing Diana saw was a flying flame, no, a flying lighter, just at the moment that the door flew open again and one of the bugs moved at them… _

It never reached them. The infernal flames burned it back to hell.

Ben stood next to Diana and watched the fire, he saw her tears and hesitantly laid one arm around her. It came as a surprise but a welcome surprise. She smiled at him still sobbing.

„We need to… find a place to sleep.", Rick broke the moment.

„Yeah, we have to survive now. We owe him that.", Ben said determined and Diana nodded.

Whipping the last tears from her eyes Diana followed the boys back into the darkness.

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It was really fun.

Just walking through the city, shooting carriers wherever he could see them. There really was no skill needed to put a bullet straight through their heads. They were so slow.

But the best thing had been killing his miserable colleagues in the facility.

Some familiar faces, those people, who never showed respect for him, already marked by the degeneration the T-Virus had brought upon them, had burst before him.

There had even been some of them still alive, hiding in lockers, or even (and he had really laughed out loud when he found that one) in the cryogenic-lab, the guy had almost frozen to death, well in the end it did not do him any good to survive the cold.

Marcus just thought it to be his duty to punish them for their failure and disrespect. Such useless material had to be disposed of before it could infect the body of Umbrella.

They were as damaging as the virus they worked on.

To think that they were really happy when they saw him, blabbering about escaping together, trying to tell him that they always thought he would be the best man to lead the Raccoon facility, until…yes until cute nine-millimeter projectiles ripped burning holes in their bodies…

Really, that was fun.

But now he had to get to the next evacuation point as soon as possible, he got the news that UBCS was launching an operation in Raccoon. The official order was: „Rescue civilians", but that was only a coverage of the kind Umbrella loved. Being the great hero for the government, while they were actually using the outbreak to perform numerous kinds of tests. The Nemesis-program was only one of them.

For example they send a T-103 Tyrant to retrieve a sample of the G-Virus from Birkin. Even though it was pitiful compared to his „goddess", it should be able to get the job done, Marcus had helped programming the CPU of this specimen.

And to collect data on those and the other experiments UBCS was here. Not all of them of course, only those, who already showed the right amount of obedience to Umbrella, were chosen for this task. The others were mere cannon fodder. Umbrella must really love fooling people…

Marcus smiled again, he would never be fooled so easy and Umbrella knew about that…

Another zombie came walking straight at him, he moaned deeply. It had been a woman in her twenties.

_Not bad… nice body, if it would not just be eaten away by the T-Virus I could really have had some use for it…_

Yes, that was the ultimate goal.

After he created the „goddess" he succeeded in constructing the ultimate weapon of destruction, the next was the ultimate assassin. A creature that could infiltrate any complex and kill every person mercilessly. Of course, you could just send a Tyrant, but it was impossible for it to enter a high security complex. Even with its durability it would be destroyed eventually. The mansion incident showed that a simple rocket launcher could take it out.

No, you had to have a creature that could sneak in and kill undetected, then it would be destroyed by an inner genetic bomb, leaving behind not a single trace. The perfect assassin.

The first step to this goal was already hidden inside an injection-gun in his pocket.

Just need to find a fitting body, an uninfected one that is.

Marcus raised his handgun and aimed relaxed. Those carriers were so slow that it was almost a pity to kill them.

Almost…

He pulled the trigger and the face of the woman spread onto the house-wall in front of which she was standing.

The young genius looked at the corpse emotionlessly and walked past it.

There was quite a way in front of him. The next evacuation-train was at the bank-facility, that was a really long walk, but if his only opponents were those useless carriers it was rather easy.

He just had to be careful with the mutations that could have been caused by the virus. Normal flies could have turned into flesh-eating monsters, worms could grew to a thousand times her size and dogs turned into the hellhound Cerberus in person.

If he would encounter one of those he'd have to run. With just a handgun he could not oppose them.

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It was now dark night in Raccoon City, most of the surviving citizens were in putative safe locations and hoped to sleep calm and protected. For many of them it would be an eternal slumber.

Many other people went totally nuts or committed suicide because of their families were killed in front of their eyes… you could consider those the lucky ones.

Alan Riley was of neither kind. He knew that this was reality, because even the sickest mind could not make up something like that for a dream, and he did not give a damn about his family. If his father was running around as a zombie he would love to kill him himself.

But that would have to wait. At the moment he was sitting inside of Robert Kendo's living room and sipped from a cup of coffee. Kendo himself sat in a big armchair and looked at the TV-screen.

His partner, Toni, had already gone to bed. She even got the bed of Kendo's brother, because that guy was in the city and helped out people with weapons. Toni had called that „heroic"…

_But you could call it „foolish", too…playing the hero would only cost one's life out there…_

The radio and TV-stations inside the city were abandoned, of course. But the national program was still working. Still, none of the news brought anything about Raccoon. Only one program brought a few words about some Umbrella medical-supplies, which normally passed through Raccoon, did not reach their destination. But a speaker of Umbrella told the nation that they were only suffering from little technical difficulties…

…_that damn liar, technical difficulties my ass… _

Kendo mumbled something in his cup. Alan had watched that guy quite some time now, and he knew that he was hiding something. His whole character was a fake.

In the last hours he had told them everything he heard from other survivors. For example the annoying fact that the official forces closed the city and set it under quarantine, it was a logical step to take, of course. They could not allow any of the zombies to leave the city. They could not stop them when they overran the country. Still, this would not make it easy to get out of the city.

Also he had told them about the soldiers that were running around. The UBCS.

They were armed pretty good, but many were already killed, it was a pathetic attempt.

But much more important was that he still had the problem of getting a weapon. This was the only gun-shop in Raccoon and if it really was empty already… they were fucked. Thinking of it, there was something he needed to discuss with Kendo when this annoying do-gooder girl was not around.

„You were lying.", he said without hesitation.

Kendo turned his head and showed a puzzled face. „What?"

„When you said, that you don't have weapons here. That was not the truth."

The face of the man hardened, it was nothing left of that friendly guy he predicted to be before, that was his true face obviously. He just did not want to scare Toni AFTER he pointed a shotgun at her head

„Boy, I am working in this business for over twenty years now. I have seen all kinds of people during this time. I had many worried fathers, who bought a gun to protect their families, women, who need them for self-defense, hunters out for dear-shooting and ….a few times there were killers."

Alan looked at him uninterested, he understood where this story was leading, but he did not care…

„After so many years you know of which kind the customers are just by looking in their eyes. So, when you were asking for a weapon I routinely looked at yours…and I saw it. That glimpse. You have those eyes. The eyes of a killer."

The word echoed in the room a few seconds.

„So what?", Alan responded coldly.

_Eyes of a killer, eh? Heard that one before…_

Yes, he had those eyes for quite some time now, but no one had ever recognized them as such, they only trembled when they looked in this icy-blue.

„I don't know why a guy like you has those eyes at such a young age or why you are together with this girl. But I can't give you a weapon, because I can't entrust you with her life."

Alan stood up quickly. A blood-freezing smile lay on his lips: „So, if I would be a killer, what do you think would stop me from killing you and taking your weapons then?"

The sudden „click" filled the shallow darkness as Alan was starring at a magnum revolver which was aimed right at his head. Kendo glared at him fiercely. „I was prepared for that."

Alan chuckled deeply, then he sat down on the sofa again.

„Now, I know what I have to think of you, good. I don't want to kill you or that girl. I just like to stay alive in his city, that's what I need the weapons for."

„Bah, I don't see why I should give you a weapon. As I said it would endanger that girl. You are the type, who would use her as a decoy when he needs to escape. Or you would leave her behind when she needs help. No, I think it's best if she stays with me."

Alan chuckled again. „You are an idiot."

„Don't overdo it, boy. I really would not like to kill you, but if I have to…"

„Don't get all exited. I just want to say, if I wanted to let her die, I could just have left her behind already. Wouldn't it be pretty stupid to walk her all the way here just to let her die then?"

Yes, that would have been stupid, but not much more stupid then taking her with him. He sighed in his thoughts. Why did he have to feel so responsible for that girl, he never cared for anyone on this earth, at least since that time. But this girl was different. She was like a living opposite of himself.

„I am not convinced. I don't believe you would really protect her if you have to."

Alan mustered the fat man. „And you can protect her? You want to keep her here and fight off zombies like your „heroic" brother does?"

Kendo raised his double-chin and nodded deeply. „Sure."

The blonde boy closed his eyes and crossed his arms: „You know that the government will make a move soon, don't you?", he said in a calm voice.

„What do you mean?"

How could one be so blind? It was obvious.

„They will not allow the zombies to leave the city. And they won't be able to keep them inside forever. Thus, there is only one measure to take. It's only logical…"

The sudden shock of realization was written all over Kendo's face. The healthy color perished and turned into chalk-white.

„You cannot mean…?", he gasped.

„Exactly…, so do you still think that she is safer when she stays with you rather then when she GOES with me?"

His face still spoke of disbelieve, he surely had thought of that possibility himself, but hearing it articulated was hard much harder. „Dear god…"

„Hey, snap out of it, will ya?"

Kendo shook his massive head, his eyes were still widened and the thought surely echoed through his mind again and again. He sighed deeply. „You're right, I can and should not keep her here. It is only a matter of time before the shop is overrun. What was I thinking…?"

Alan rolled his eyes unnerved. „I don't care of what you said, just get me a decent weapon and we leave."

Another moment of silence as Kendo looked at Alan again. „You've gotta go to sleep now. You need to recover."

He finally said emotionless and raised from his armchair. „Use the couch if you want…got some blankets in the storage." His eyes seemed to be distant somehow. Maybe the shock was really too big for him to handle.

_Damn, if he now goes nuts I will never get weapons…goddamnit…_

„Hey, you have to…huh?" His vision suddenly went all blur. Colors were mixing and his whole body felt so weak. A numb feeling started to spread in his hands and legs, even in his head. What was going on?

„Really took some time…", Kendo said seemingly far away.

„What t-the he…", the blonde boy brought out while he had to settle to the couch. If his thoughts would not have been so disoriented he surely understood what had happened. The cup fell on the carpet, the coffee sunk into it.

_Oh no…how could I…?_

„The coffee. I put in something to knock you out for a few hours. I did not trust you then and I am not trusting you now. Back then I wasn't sure if I could deal with you, but now I am glad to have you out of the way for some time."

Strong waves of darkness flooded over the blonde boy as he sank into an very deep sleep.

„Yah…bassttardd…", he mumbled while Kendo looked down on him with an unpleasant smile. „Don't worry. I'll take care of everything."

Then the darkness shrouded everything.

End of ACT II


	19. Chapter 18

-1Sword of Light Blade of Darkness: Yeah, that is shop-owner that you meet with Claire/Leon, the guy who dies an leaves a crossbow/shotgun for you. Maybe you noticed, but the Murphy Seeker, which Rick's group met was actually the UBCS-guy Carlos or Nicholai kill when you enter the Umbrella-Office in RE3. He is infected at that time and about to turn into a zombie. I decided to tell the story of his infection like this.

And the guy storming out of Jack's Bar was of course Brad Vickers who is running away after meeting Jill in RE3.

Watch out for it, because I am going to put in much more cameos of minor characters.

Baneff: Glad to hear that. And I appreciate critic, so tell me where the problem with the following occurred, I can't get better without knowing

ACT III: Determination

1)

The world looked so much smaller when you can only see halve a meter in front of you.

It was a peaceful view, no blood, no violence. Just a really small storage room. For Rick this microcosm seemed much better then anything beyond the red steel door he was looking at. But that was not going to help.

A small oil-lamp's light flooded the room, producing many frightening shadows from the tools and equipment stored here.

Rick tried to move, but quickly noticed that he couldn't. He was stuck under two bodies, but at least they were of the still-breathing, not undead kind. Diana and Ben.

They found this storage in the same alley where the fire was still burning only a few meters away. He could still smell the burning garbage. The memory of Murphy's death came with the smell. Hard, brutal, cruel that's how it was, how it always will be.

„Guys, time to wake up.", he said to his two companions.

They were all nestled up to each other, not because it was cold, but because the room was not even near big enough for all of them. But after all what they saw in the last hours they could need the feeling of being close. Just knowing that there was somebody here for you. A good feeling.

Rick couldn't help but wondering if Alan and Toni felt the same.

_Nah, not that guy, never…_

„It's morning already?", Diana mumbled sleepily.

„Yeah, we gotta get going.", Rick said while looking at his watch. It was only 6.30 AM, but they needed to use the daylight as much as possible. Plus, they only had two days left until their rendezvous at the RPD.

The two weights lifted from him and they all stood up. It really hadn't been a relaxing night, they all needed to stretch and their joints cracked painfully loud.

„Alright, I say we eat something and then try out another location for Ben's parents.", Diana stated while she already opened her backpack and searched it for some food.

Rick nodded, but surprisingly Ben shook his head. „No, that's no use."

The brown-haired girl frowned. „What did you say?"

A small sad smile spread over Ben's face. „I said, that we won't find them. It's no use. They are either dead, or already left the city. I cannot do anything for them now…they would want me to get the hell out of here."

Diana looked at him painfully. „You can't know any of that for sure. Let's look for them some more."

The fists of the small boy clenched so hard that the knuckles turned white. „No. I…I just know it, they are dead and even if we find them it will be too late. We need to go on…have no time."

Rick felt how much agony it did to him to say that, but he accepted the boy's decision. That boy was really tough when he needed to be. He actually wondered if he could make such a choice.

Their breakfast consisted of a few chocolate-bars and some packed juice, which they ate silently without talking. They were not really hungry, but they forced themselves to eat, knowing they would need the strength.

After they were done Ben explored the two lockers in the room and after some time produced two boxes of a silver-grey powder.

„Gunpowder", he said. „Can use that for a small explosion. Should be useful."

Rick pulled the two queues from his belt and carefully opened the door with one of them. Diana behind him readied her revolver and pointed it to the ground.

The stench of the burning garbage intensified extremely when they walked into the alley again. A big plus for the fire was at least that it did seem to keep the zombies away. They quickly checked the wall above their heads for some of those insects and then walked through the door to the east.

The next step would be to get Rick's mother, since Diana did not really know where her father was. As a cabdriver he could have been anywhere when this apocalypse started.

She hoped to find him through coincidence.

The main-street did not change very much from the last time they saw it. Only destroyed cars, bodies (though fewer then before) and broken-down barricades.

At the west end of the street they could see the RPD towering above the other buildings, but they did not dare to go over there. They wanted to keep hoping that the police could save them and that hope was keeping them on their feet. With it shattered, they wouldn't survive.

Of course every dead cop they discovered weakened that hope.

Luckily they did not have to go very near to it. Rick's apartment was in Flower Street. They would have to cross the main-street right here and go through a door that would led them to the uptown parking lot. The way was pretty long, but they could make it today if nothing happened.

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He was absurdly tired.

Sleeping only three hours was definitely not enough. And on top of that this miserable place where he had been forced to sleep: A cheap dirty motel room. At least it had a stable door and lock, but even if it was relatively safe he had no time to sleep enough. Even though Marcus knew, that the bank-facility was at the moment closed-down and only used as a storage for BOWs in stasis, he had to reach it pretty soon. There could be other employees on their way there and it had only one evacuation-train.

If that was gone, he was finished

A rattling noise left of him woke him from his thoughts. It came from a pile of garbage decorated by a human body. Marcus could not recognize, if it was a male of female, but that was not important. The thing dragging his attention to him was next to the body and just sank its fangs into the soft flesh of the bodies stomach.

A dog.

Or if you would want to put it that way, a Cerberus. But normally those names were only given to those BOWs, who were created in the labs. This specimen was created by the outbreak maybe bitten by a zombie.

Its skin was completely missing, the red muscle-tissue was visible everywhere. Some blood dripped from numerous wounds and even if he could not see them from his position, he knew that its eyes where blank white.

Well, at this specific moment Marcus did not care how it was created or what it looked like. The simple fact that it was there was more then enough.

The Doberman stopped his bloody meal and turned his head towards him.

Oh, yes. Its eyes were white, still you could see the bloodlust in them.

_Fucking hell!!_

Marcus raised the gun as quick as he could. The trigger felt so unmovable in his sweaty fingers.

The first bullet hit the wall about one meter above the creature. The dog showed his seemingly gigantic fangs and let out a long growl.

It really was different when there was a five-inch strong Plexiglas between you and those things.

The second bullet drove itself into the ground next to the beast, just when it started to move in his direction.

Ten meters.

Another bullet missed.

Seven. Marcus felt blood dripping from his nose. He had that problem, whenever he was nervous, only that he had not been nervous since his Harvard-time. He tasted the blood on his lips and knew that he had to aim better or he would be dead.

Four.

_Impossible, me killed by a filthy dog? No no no!!_

Three.

With a wet breaking noise the fourth bullet blew away half of the dogs head and threw it a meter back. A last high pitched yowl ended its life. Marcus took some hard breaths. His body felt numb.

He quickly walked over the dead cadaver aimed and fired the rest of the magazine into it. Some ugly insults were drowned in the loud explosions of the gun in his hand.

It clicked as the clip was empty and the sled stayed back.

„Damn bastard!!", he ended his hate triad and gave the bloody remains a last kick.

Nothing had never ever frightened him as much as this thing did just now. Not the Hunter or his creepy colleagues, nothing.

He tried to calm himself with the thought that it was a low beast with the brain activity of an ant, but it did not really help. Made it even worse.

Then something came to his mind. He looked at his gun. He was down to his last clip now.

He cursed that thing in front of him even more and not only the dog. The zombies which he killed unnecessarily on his way, they all were guilty of making him waste his ammo.

How was he supposed to make it to the bank with only fifteen goddamn bullets. He absolutely needed a plan.

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Among all those people Toni Williams seemed to have the best night. She slept very well in the bed of Kendo's brother. She found it kind of awkward, but in such a situation you had to deal. The big shock came _after _she woke up and found her partner collapsed on the couch in the living room. Totally out. Looking like he was dead…

„Wake up, you idiot!!", Toni screamed, now directly into his ear.

This situation was not like him. He had always been up before her, never sleepy. She had not even seen him yawning only once.

And now he was sleeping like a very dead stone.

_Dead… _

She checked his breath and pulse for the tenth time, just to be sure. He was knocked out cold, but still alive.

What the hell happened to him, while she was asleep?

There was practically nothing she had not tried to wake him up, but he did not respond at all. This was really starting to frighten her.

And on top of that Kendo was not here, too. This was so creepy.

_Why do I have to be the protagonist girl in this horror-movie? The girl always dies…_

Alright, her knowledge of horror-movies was close to nothing. But she had once seen a movie where it was said, that you would only die in a horror-movie, after you lost your virginity.

_Okay, considering that I am safe…_

But what the hell was she thinking about? That was so stupid.

The problem she was facing was much too big to just ignore it and think of old movies.

What should she do when he would not wake up? If he was in a coma of some kind? She could not make it through the city alone. She really hated to admit it, but she needed him. Grabbing his collar she positioned her mouth right at his ear.

„WAKE UP!!!", she shouted again, shaking him roughly.

He did not even twitch, just fell back on the couch.

„Fuck it. You can't just leave me alone, you bastard!!"

She suddenly felt really cold inside. Her interiors crumbled. Okay, she could not stand that guy, he was cold, arrogant and egoistic, but he still was her partner. The fear of losing him, losing her chance of finding her parents, losing just everything, including her life, and just being alone in this hell made her heart bleed.

Tears came to her eyes. She tried to stop them, but it did not work:

„Wake up!! Please!!", she begged, but he still did not respond.

What could have happened to him? Did Kendo do anything? Or was it a zombie?

She sobbed bitterly and sunk together on the armchair next to the couch.

_No, that is not happening…I can't do that alone…how can he do that to me…I would give almost everything if he would just wake up and yell at me for crying so pathetic…_

„Uuuhh…"

Toni sat up straight. Did she really hear that or was it just her imagination?

„Urgh…that fucking bastard…", a voice moaned.

No, not her imagination. Her imagination would not use such words.

She slowly turned her head and saw him move on the couch. He really was moving, his hand placed on his face.

_O-okay, cut the „give-everything-stuff"…_

„Alan?"

„Still alive…yeah…", he pressed out, while sitting up slowly. „…apart from that throbbing headache."

She would almost have hugged him, it was really close this time. But she could hold back.

„What happened?", she quickly wiped the tears out of her eyes.

„That bastard spiced my coffee…how long was I out?", he clenched his fist in rage, but obviously the headache was slowing him down.

„It's now one PM. You slept quite late", she tried to sound cool, but in fact her heart was jumping. He was still an idiot, yes, but he was living idiot.

„Damn…how could I be such a fool…", he moaned deeply holding his head. „… we have to get out of here… quickly. That guy's dangerous."

Toni pulled up from the armchair, not really sure, if he wasn't still delirious. Kendo seemed to be such a nice guy, but maybe he was only pretending to be? These kinds of disasters always made some people go crazy.

They could really be in great danger.

„Okay, we're going", she decided quickly.

Alan got to his feet, but he was shaking. He seemed to be still affected by the stuff Kendo gave him.

„You okay?", Toni asked worried.

„Yeah, let's get going."

Toni nodded slowly, then she turned. Her heart skipped a beat as she saw the person, who apparently listened from the shadows for quite a time.

The big man, Robert Kendo, stood directly in the door. A slight metallic reflection of the ceiling-light indicated that he was holding a gun in his hand.

„And where do ya think you're going?", he asked.

Alan grit his teeth, seemingly, he tried to find the strength to jump at the shop-owner. Toni quickly stepped between the two. No longer giving his partner the chance of getting himself killed.

„We are leaving. Thank you for everything", she tried to sound very friendly, but her voice had a nervous shaking.

„Follow me.", Kendo said calmly and winked them with the unarmed hand.

A silent grumbling sound escaped from Alan's mouth, a sign that he was getting better at least, but he seemed to understand that he could not do anything against Kendo in his weakened state. He followed the guy while watching the gun carefully.

„Where are we going?", Toni asked not really sure what she should think of Kendo.

He had been really nice yesterday, but today he was like a different person. If Alan was right about him, they needed to get ready to run.

„The cellar. Got something prepared for you last night. Took me some time."

What did he mean? Weird pictures of a torture-chamber flashed through her mind. Bloody knives, bonds and all that creepy stuff. A freezing sting ran down her spine.

No, he wasn't that kind of a man. Or was he?

She felt that she was starting to sweat, she hated to be so helpless, but what could she do against a gun?

_Well, a bonbon-glass will not help this time…, _she thought darkly and tried to suppress the feeling of guilt.

Kendo led them down the stairs to the shop again and through another door until they reached the basement level. There were several doors, but only one of them was significant. It had a strong steel lock with a number-plate. But seemingly it was not locked, Kendo just pulled at the handle and opened it.

„My brother used this room", he said and let the two of them step in.

Whatever Toni thought this room would be like, she was terrible wrong. It was pretty small, not much bigger then an average bathroom. The walls were filled with numerous posters of naked women.

The only furniture in this room were two workbenches, both equipped with all different kinds of tools for metal-crafting. That room did not look like a torture-chamber. It was more like a workshop.

„This is where Joe works on the custom-guns", Kendo said. „I never achieved his level of craftsman-ship, but well…I don't think he would mind that I misused his stuff."

_What is that guy talking about? Misused? He seems so different from yesterday, so depressed…disoriented…_

Kendo walked toward one of the workbenches and laid down the gun. Toni looked at her partner, worried that he would use that unguarded moment. The man picked up something from the bench that looked like …well…another gun.

Toni really had not the slightest idea of weapons, but she thought that the gun he had been holding was called a „revolver" and this thing was an „semi-automatic". They were distinguished from each other by the barrel shaped magazine of the revolver. „Here. Catch!", Kendo suddenly said and threw the weapon lightly right at her.

She hardly managed to catch it and directly felt the heavy weight.

Toni looked at the pistol puzzled. „What…?"

Alan seemed to be surprised too, but you would only notice that by the slight twitch of his eyebrow.

„A „Samurai Edge". My brother constructed that model for the S.T.A.R.S.. He had some parts left here that I placed together somehow. It surely is not as good as the ones of Joe, but it should be enough for ya."

Toni was overwhelmed, just thinking that he worked all night to get a weapon for her. „Really, thank you.", she said looking at the new chance in form of cold steel.

„No thanks needed. Yo, boy, get over here.", he winked at Alan, who walked nearer carefully. He still seemed not to trust the shop-owner. Maybe that was understandable, if Kendo really knocked him out with drugs, still that boy had a big problem with trust.

„I got something special for ya." he grabbed another item from the bench and handed it to Alan. „That thing took me even longer then the „Edge". Had to make it from completely nothing."

Alan looked down at the weapon and frowned. He seemed to understand what kind of weapon he was holding. Two dark brown barrels where mounted next to each other on a wooden grip. The butt of the grip seemed to be sawed off and after that sealed by tape. She had once seen one of these old shotguns with two barrels, and from the length of that thing in Alan's hand she assumed that the barrels were sawed off, too. It was not much bigger then her own weapon. About 40 centimeters she measured by eye.

And another thing was pretty odd: The downside of the barrels, starting from the trigger towards the end of the barrels, was equipped with a long sharp-looking blade.

„Made this thing from an old shotgun and a machete. It fires 12 gauge shotgun-rounds, but only two at a time, you have to reload after every second shot, but, as far as I have found out. one load of shot kills those zombies easily." He showed Alan that the funny weapon could be opened at the rear end for the reloading.

„I mounted on the blade so you can use it even without ammo. It should slice of the head of a zombie easily. In exchange you can only fire that thing with one hand."

Alan weighted it in his right hand seemingly trying to adjust to the feeling.

„And another thing. I could not test it yet, but since I sawed of the barrel and butt, this thing will have the recoil of a wild horse. It would literally tear off the arm of an untrained man. Think you can handle it?"

The last words had a pretty provoking tone to them Toni thought, but Alan did not seem to care. Then again maybe he did.

His sudden movement was much too fast for Toni or Kendo to react, he aimed the gun at one of the posters right behind Kendo's head and pressed the trigger. A dry click indicated that it was empty.

_W-what is that idiot doing?_

Her heart pounded like an atomic bomb. If he had just moved the weapon a few centimeters to the left he could have killed Kendo.

„Ammo?", Alan asked and let the weapon sink slowly.

Kendo walked towards a steel locker and opened it. „Coming straight to the point, huh?"

When he turned around he was holding four boxes. Three in red and a bigger one in an olive green.

„Don't have much ammo left, you can have the rest of the bullets and shells. I have still have a crossbow and this magnum."

He tossed Alan the green box and handed her the other three. Now she could read that it were Handgun Bullets. 15 pieces per pack. 45 altogether.

„A little hint, Miss Williams: Aim for their heads. It keeps them down and saves ammo."

Toni nodded and again remembered Dudley's smashed face…

_You had no choice…stupid girl…get over that already…_

Very odd. Why the hell did her inner voice start to sound a bit like…well…like that cold idiot.

„I don't know how to thank you. I will never forget about that.", she said while she quickly stuffed the boxes in her backpack.

„Hey, it's nothing. I just want you to get out of the city as soon as possible."

Alan walked past the man wordless and got out of the room. „Uh…he is grateful too, I guess."

_A „thank you" would have killed you, huh? Oh boy…_

„Ha, don't worry. He can't stand me, serves me right for drugging him", the man smiled a bit. He seemed to have found a bit of that happiness from yesterday.

„We are going now. Please take care of yourself. I want to see you again some day."

She quickly turned around and walked after her partner, she had to suppress a few tears. Her heart told her that she would see him in a few weeks, after they all had been rescued and they would live a peaceful life somewhere else. But her brain told her that this was stupid. Neither would she make it, nor Kendo, nor her parents.

This crisis would kill everyone.


	20. Chapter 19

-1Major sorry guys.

I know it took me forever getting this new chapter up, but I just started at university and was/am pretty busy the last months. After July 18th I will have more time to write. So please forgive me.

Ryo

2)

They really had covered quite a way when they finally arrived in Flower Street. Even before entering the Parking Lot they had to witness something horrifying. A car-crash had occurred only a few meters from the entrance to the lot. A big bus was piling up like the Monument on top of about half a dozen other cars. The drivers were mostly still inside of their cars, they did not turn into zombies. Rick still could not believe in this story of magic or curse, but he really wanted to know how they were turning and why those people just did not.

It was pretty hard to think that, but you could really consider those the lucky ones. He himself would rather die then turn into such a thing.

Just when he had thought about this Diana had seen the bodies of two small children. They had died in the crash and laid dead and cold on the backseat of their car. They had quickly turned away from that horrible sight. It was just…just too much. It made everything so damn real. This crisis was not even sparing such young lives.

Just thinking that the children, who often played on the playground next to Rick's house, were now all dead or even worse… undead. He just hoped he would not have to kill one of them.

_Frankie…who sold lemonade on the street. Melissa, who had a slight crush for me…god please don't force me to kill them…, _he had thought at that time.

But the horror would not stop. The Parking Lot had been a death-trap. Only a second after they opened the door, still mentally raped by the picture of the dead kids, a deep greedy growling reached their ears and shook them awake. They did not see the Doberman until it was only one meter away.

It had surely once been a fine dog, strong and healthy, but now it was nothing more then a four-legged zombie. Its flesh was rotting away while it was still moving. Underneath the remains of its furry skin, red, bloody muscle tissue was visible and on top of all of that one of its eyes was dangling slowly from its optic nerve.

The murderous intent in its remaining dead eye almost froze their blood, but Rick barely managed to slam the door in the frame and shield them from the creature. They were all shaking and gasping as they heard the monster ramming right into the door. It was stable enough, but still it shook in the frame.

They knew that they would die the second they would step into that lot, thus they needed to take a big detour around the lot. Thanks to that it was already dark night when they arrived here.

„It is pretty silent, don't you think?", Ben whispered through the darkness.

The streetlights were still working, but some were destroyed and the night was darker then usually, or maybe that was just imagination? Who could know? In a world filled with zombies and monsters it sure wasn't unthinkable that the light itself was eaten by the darkness.

They had encountered some zombies, but managed to run from all of them and luckily they did not see any more of those killer-dogs or the gigantic insects that got Murphy. If they would be chased by such a beast they were as good as finished.

„Right. Plus, the smell is not that strong here. Maybe they did not reach this street?", Rick replied.

That was just a wish, of course. They were only a few blocks away from the RPD and even though they did not see a zombie for the last hour it did not mean that this part of the city was untouched.

Flower Street was a part of Raccoon that was normally inhabited by the lesser wealthy part of the citizens. It

had many big houses with up to six apartments.

Rick's mother was still unemployed after she lost her packer-job as a worker in an Umbrella warehouse, that was shut down a few month ago. Thus, they had to move into a small apartment here. But it was okay for both of them.

„That one.", Rick said, pointing at one of the apartment houses with the queue. Now it were only about hundred meters.

It was one of the most run-down and shabby houses.

The others nodded and they all moved towards it carefully. There was no moaning around here or any other sounds that would indicate that a zombie was near. It really was odd that there was not even one body here.

They reached the house without problems and Rick quickly reached for his key.

„The door is always locked, the old Misses Harris locks it all the time. Don't know why. But at the moment I could kiss her for it."

Thinking about the fact that it actually was locked made him hope that his mother could be safe, it was only a small chance, but as far as he had found out, the zombies could not open doors. Not even unlocked ones.

He opened the wooden door and slowly stepped in.

„Second floor", he whispered over his shoulder, before he walked into the complete darkness.

It was still silent here, no zombie moans or screams. Plus, the smell of decomposition was not…well…was not existing, actually. It was just that time when Rick noticed that it had not just been weaker on the street but really not existing at all. That was really odd….

_Maybe you have just gotten used to it?_

That was possible, but he did not think so. That sweet-sour smell was something you don't get used to.

A nervous feeling was spreading in his stomach. Something was not alright here…something different from what was going wrong in the rest of the city.

They moved forward, headed towards the stairs with Rick still hoping that he would not find his mother dead, but that nagging feeling was still there.

The group had agreed to minimize communication to the most necessary. Not because they did not want to talk, but they feared that they could attract things like that insect or the dog.

Silently they hushed through the staircase, passing many closed doors, and quickly reached the second floor.

Only a small sign with a lighted switch indicated that this apartment was inhabited by „Rick and Yasmin Misamoto".

Rick felt eerily distanced, standing in front of his own door like he was a stranger. He reached for his key again and positioned it where he presumed the keyhole. The silent „click" when the key entered the lock seemed so much louder then usual, but it was nothing compared to Rick's bumping heart.

„GO AWAY!!"

The voice of his mother. She was alive!!

Rick's heart jumped from fear to absolute happiness in one beat, the starting tiredness was superseded by adrenalin-caused excitement.

„Mom, It's me", he exclaimed.

Even through the door, he could hear the surprised gasp. „Rick? Is that really…"

The plinking sound of a chain came from the door as it was ripped open. The women in the doorframe was in her late thirties, but even in the darkness you could see that she was still very beautiful. Her raven-black hair was neatly knotted behind her head, her big green eyes shone like emeralds. It was his mother, no doubt.

An explosion of light hit Rick's eyes, made him stumble back a few centimeters.

The flashlight in his mothers hand was aimed right at his face. „Oh, thank god…", his mother exclaimed snatching Rick and hugging him.

„I was so worried…", she sniffed.

Rick hugged her back. „I'm alright…really".

They separated again, and Rick's mother finally seemed to see his companions, the bright light beam fixed on both of them for a few seconds. „Friends?", she asked.

„Yes, we met in the school. It was thanks to your son that we survived up until now", Diana said quickly.

Ben nodded in agreement.

„Hey, hey…don't make me the hero here, we survived together…", Rick replied scratching the back of his head.

His mother looked at them again, then she nodded. „Alright, come in, we can't stay out side too long, it's dangerous."

Rick let Diana and Ben past him before he entered the apartment himself. He closed the door quickly and noticed the big chain that was mounted to the frame. It was definitely new. Not really surprising that his mother secured the door in case of a zombie attack.

His mother was not really well. He had noticed that already when she opened the door. She was very nervous. It was surely normal to be nervous in a zombie-invested town, but there was something else wrong here, something she knew about.

„Let's get in the kitchen, you surely need to rest after these days. And I want to hear everything about what is going on in the rest of the city. Since that monsters appeared here I could not leave the house."

She quickly hit the light-switch and the hallway was flooded by light.

The old pictures of Rick and his father where still lining up at the wall, he looked at them, but he still could not feel like he was at home, everything changed in the last days.

_No, this place is no longer home, we have to go as quick as possible…._

The carpet was lowering their steps to a silent shuffling noise while his mother was lighting the way with the flashlight. It was funny that she did not use the room-light. As far as Rick had learned there was still electricity in the city.

When the beam of light broke through the shadows of the living room for a second while she turned towards the kitchen, Rick could get a blink at the windows. Or better, at the place where the windows had been. Strong planks were nailed over the openings neatly. The wood looked like it was taken from a piece of the furniture.

Not one zombie that Rick had seen was able to jump, let alone climb, so it would make no sense…unless there were more of these insects here…

„I can understand that. After those zombies attacked the school I just wanted to lock myself somewhere. They were so brutal and merciless.…", Diana said painfully, obviously remembering the events there.

Rick's mother frowned. „Zombies? What are you talking about?"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The T-virus spread with a far greater speed then anyone could ever have imagined.

Whoever was responsible for it getting lose sure must be satisfied with his work now. Not that Marcus was the type, who cared about innocents being killed, but he had almost started to like his life in Raccoon. Especially, after Birkins most tragic death. Plus, on top of that he now had the trouble of getting out of this city alone. Which really presented a problem, as he learned now, while he stood in a destroyed Weapon-shop near the RPD.

_Just great, isn't it? You finally find a goddamn weapon-shop and it is already wrecked…_

Marcus kicked the fat body of a man on the floor. That guy really was killed a bad way, he seemed to have been attacked by at least four zombies at once. Well, anyone with enough brains would just have run away….

There was not much left to recognize him as a human being, but he wasn't dead for long. About two hours maybe. Normally he would already have turned into a zombie, but the damage he took from the attack was too severe.

Some glass-shards crunched under his shoes, while the boy walked through Gunshop Kendo.

Marcus had remembered this weapon-shop from a time when he visited Police Chief Irons in the RPD. He had heard that it was famous in the city, but until today he did not give a damn about it.

_Of course when you need a weapon-parlor he is already dead…figures…_

Well, so much for his plan A.

All the closets were empty, not a single pack of ammunition was still there.

„How? How can you dare to do this to me? You damn piece of shit!!", the boy suddenly shouted, letting all that frustration of the last days explode into the twilight of the broken lamp and the dark evening. He kicked the former shop-owner (at least he presumed that it was the owner) against the remains of his head and was disgusted when his shoe broke into the already crushed skull.

Blood and brain-tissue splattered on his shoe.

„You damn…"

He quickly wished his shoe at the clothes of the dead guy, trying to get rid of the blood.

It was just impossible, all of this could not be happening. For the first time in his life everything was going totally wrong.

Since he arrived in Raccoon he only had bad luck, apart from the few bright spots where he sold Birkin out or could kill his useless colleagues, of course, but everything else was wrong. Almost like there would be a higher force that was guiding his steps from one hole into the next.

No, he did not believe in something as ridiculous as god, but it was still odd for so many bad things to happen to someone as …well… brilliant and necessary as himself to the world. He was still needed.

His research was not done, yet.

It was just unfair that he had to suffer so much, he did not deserve it…

A faint smile hushed over his face. Maybe he would feel better if he'd let the one or ones responsible for his misery suffer as much (or maybe even a little more) then himself.

The guy who dared to ruin his life would feel never-ending pain. And not that type of „never-ending" that would eventually lead to his death. Maybe that person would be a useful „support" for his research.

_Well, a nice thought…still it is not going to help you now, right? _

No, it wouldn't help, but having an agenda would keep him up. Considering his ammo-problem he would just need to go to the RPD. If that idiot Irons would still be living he could get ammo from him.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Getting into Raccoons downtown turned out to be greater problem then Alan and Toni had imagined.

The only near connection between uptown and downtown had pretty much been the stupidest and ugliest thing that the planners of the city designed. Toni had told Alan that a high Umbrella-finance once ordered a seemingly famous architect, „Trevor"-something, to redesign some special places in Raccoon.

Apparently, her father was the one taking care of the funds for those projects, and as a little gift for his help in this project, his bank in the downtown was modernized by that architect, too. It did not get really more beautiful, only more luxurious. And as that loony girl said, she hated it.

Well, and one of those places was a gate between up- and downtown. A strong iron fence that had never been closed before. At least that was what Toni told him.

They had to climb it to finally reach the downtown-district. A very dangerous task, since the gate was pretty high and Toni could not get over it without his help. Meaning, that she had been pretty much unprotected when she landed on the other side. If a zombie would have had attacked her she would have been finished.

But she seemed to have a deal with that bitch fortune, nothing was even near when she jumped down, and thus they both got past that gate and walked along the destroyed houses of this part of the city.

Similar to the other streets there was a bunch of wrecked cars and some corpses here, a few zombies shuffled around, not near enough to waste ammo on them, and some screams echoed through the ending day.

„They destroyed everything…how is that possible?", the girl whined silently.

„Think about the school, idiot. They only needed hours for it. Now they had days…just as I told you guys.", he replied darkly.

_Yes, I had told them…I knew that the city was doomed…and now we most likely are, too. Getting out of the city will be as good as impossible._

Her shoulders sank a few centimeters. A sign that she knew how right he was and had been. Then she increased her speed. „Well, we are almost there anyway."

Alan knew that the chances of finding her parents alive were close to zero and he was sure that she knew it, too. But she did not want to believe it. She was so stupid, so immature…as…innocent…as…

… _yourself…before you were…_

„Shut up!!", he shouted out, clenching his fists so hard that his fingernails cut into his skin. He never wanted to think about that again. He had suppressed it since that time, but now after all this started and he met with those kids it came up again and again.

„What did I say, idiot?", the girl growled angrily, turning to him.

He bit his lip again to regain his conscious. „Forget about it…must be that drug of the fat guy."

She looked at him suspicious then turned to the street again: „I just hope he is alright…."

_Most likely he is already dead_, Alan thought, but he did not say it.

The houses got significantly bigger and more luxurious as they walked along the street, this was indeed the part of the city where Raccoon's big cheeses lived. But in the end all of their money could not save them from the undead meat-lovers out here. Alan saw some zombies shuffling in front of the houses with obviously expensive cloth. Fur-coats and tons of jewelry could not make any of those dead guys beautiful again. Not that those fat old hags could ever have been beautiful.

_What the hell are you thinking about? _

He mentally brushed the ridiculous thoughts away and watched the girl walking in front of him.

She was definitely nervous, her hands were shaking and her skin was as white as snow. The Samurai Edge stuck in her waistband, making it easy for her to grab it. He told her to carry it in her hand, but she said that it was too heavy. A foolish act, but she wouldn't listen to him.

„There we are", the girl whispered nervously as she stopped in front of one of the biggest houses around. Her family was definitely loaded when they could afford such a villa. It had four stories and very well cared garden in the front. In front of garage he could see a stretch-limousine.

„Car's still there…", Toni said with a shaking tone.

She walked through a gate, towards the front door, she touched the weapon in her pants and seemed to think about pulling it out, but after a second she let her hand sink again. Alan knew that she would not be strong enough to kill her parents if necessary.

Her hand pressed the handle of the door, it clicked dryly, then it opened. „It's not locked…why didn't they lock the goddamn door?", the girl pressed out. She was obviously very close to a panic.

„I'll go first…", Alan said and pressed himself past her, right through the door.

She was not in the condition to take the lead now, her emotions would get both of them killed.

He heard her closing the door behind his back and the sounds of the street were immediately silenced to almost nothing. They were standing in a big lobby with marble-floor and some statues.

„We need to be…"

„MOM? DAD? ARE YOU HERE?", the girl shouted, not even thinking for a second.

„…silent. Hell…next time you just invite those rotting bastards directly, yeah?", Alan sighed deeply. It really was a miracle that both of them were still alive.

„Oh come on, that way we don't have to search the whole place. It is huge…"

„Yeah…great…", he shook his head rubbing his eyes. The girl walked past him again and further into the lobby. There was nothing here that seemed out of the picture. No blood or bodies. It was sure to say, that nobody fought and died here.

„We need to check their rooms, maybe they hide somewhere. That's what I would do". She looked weirdly relieved, maybe she thought that if they weren't lying here they wouldn't be dead.

He just nodded slowly.


	21. Chapter 20

-13)

„Well…I think that is what you can expect of the capital of hell, eh? Dead people coming back to life is the least…", Rick's mother pulled a big piece of her cigarette and inhaled the smoke deeply. The ashtray was filled with at least fifty of those coffin nails. Diana could see in her face that she wasn't usually smoking, she got paler with every drag. She had seen that before. Her ex-boyfriend, that asshole, was a strong smoker.

„But, mom, you said something about monsters? What did you mean if not the zombies?" He looked at the place behind his mother's head, where a window had been.

It was completely covered with wooden bars now. Diana swallowed, she actually did not want to know what made such a security necessary.

_Maybe the insects? Or the dogs…hell, it could even be flying mutated pigs…_

She could feel a icy-cold shiver running down her spine. The darkness in this apartment and the sealed windows made her feel like being in a dungeon surround by evil fiends. She wanted away, fast…very fast.

„Trust me you…don't want to know", Rick's mother sighed. But she seemed oddly calm, as if she had already lost any hope.

„Alright, doesn't matter anyway. We wait till tomorrow and will leave at dawn. We leave the city", Rick stated strongly. His mother looked at him and then she smiled briefly. „Your just like your father…always fighting battles you can't win. We can't leave the house anymore. I don't even know how you made it here in the first place. We can only wait till we run out of food and die peacefully."

The absolute coolness with which the woman stated that they would die was horrifying, she really must have lost every bit of hope. Or was it more then that?

„Rick, now that you're here we can meet Kogoro together. Let's be happy."

Diana couldn't …just couldn't grasp this. She really wanted to die, without even trying to survive. Diana did not want to think what she was thinking right now, but she couldn't help it.

_We have to leave her….she will be our death…_

She felt dirty, slimy and like a horrible bitch, but she knew it was right.

The loud noise of breaking glass woke her from this terrible thought. But thankfully it was not one of the blocked windows that was opened roughly by a monster. No, it was just Rick's glass that he threw against the wall. Some of the juice, he had been drinking, ran down the wallpaper.

„NO!! That's not what _tousan_ would want us to do!! He did sacrifice his life for mine, I owe him to fight for it!!"

His mother remained calm. „You don't know what you are talking about, you did not see them. Even your father would have had to run from them."

Diana had watched that scene paralyzed and was really curious what that story with Ricks father was about, but she did not dare to ask.

„Then we run too. We run until we reach the RPD and hide. The monsters won't get us…", Ben tried to calm the situation down.

„We won't make it…", Ricks mother whispered sadly.

„Yes, we will. And even if we won't, at least we tried", Rick said darkly and left the room.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It took them about one hour to search the entire house, but they did not find anyone anywhere. Toni had actually been hoping not to find her parents, because they would never have been able to survive here. They would have been zombies, which she would have had to kill. Thus, it was actually great that they were no longer here.

But now she wanted to know where they had gone. They would never leave her behind, would they? Okay, they were often fighting, but not that much. The only thing odd was the untidy bedroom of her parents. The cupboards were ripped open and empty, likewise the sideboards.

_They must have fled…without me…no… that is just impossible they would never do that…never…_

The pain of doubt really made her crazy. On the other hand, what could she accuse them for? They woke up in a town run over by dead people. If they just lost their minds and fled it was nothing surprising. Toni was sure she would have done the same…or maybe not….

Now where she was standing in front of her own room, and watched Alan opening the door carefully, she understood that this was what happened anywhere in the city. All those who could flee fled, leaving someone behind if necessary. Kids, Grandparents, Pets…they were all dying somewhere alone.

The only encouraging thought was that she would not be alone when this time would come. Even if it was only Alan, a person whom she never seemed to understand or even like, it was better then being alone.

Her room's door, which was covered in posters and the typical „genius at work" and „keep out" signs, opened slowly, not screeching a bit. It was of course oiled on a regular basis.

„I'll go first", she said, readying the handgun and pointing it towards the interior of the room.

He nodded darkly. The blade of his odd weapon glowing in the shallow moonlight. Toni pressed the door open with the elbow, entering her room. All her senses were opened and even a silent moan would have made her shoot.

But there wasn't anything. It was just pitch-black. Her hand quickly searched for the button next to the doors frame. The neon-tube at the ceiling exploded in light, blinding her for a few seconds.

She forced her eyes open, only able to see colors of her room, the oak of her cupboard, the blue of her wallpap…

…_.movement!! _

Her body acted quicker then her brain could have thought about it, her hand rising up, her finger pulling the trigger of the Samurai Edge, which was not easy at all, and fired at the bloody red movement in front of her.

„Don't…!!", Alan shouted, but she did not hear it.

Three bullets hacked into the thing, but it did not stop moving. Her eyes got clearer, even if she actually did not want to see whatever was coming at her. The red turned a little brighter, with golden dots on it and Toni stopped firing. It was a mischievous evil…curtain…

A goddamn piece of expensive stuff, that was swinging at the soft wind of an slightly open window. The three bullets ripped holes of the size of carrots into it. „Damn…", Toni growled. „I loved that one…"

„Next time look first, then shoot. I don't like to be the next curtain you kill…"

Toni gave him an angry look. „Yeah, just hope that I will _have_ to mistake you with a curtain…"

His eyes spoke of nothing again, he ignored her sarcastic joke, as always. „Hey, come here", he ordered. His position right at her bed made her brain go into „pervert-mode".

_Maybe he wants…nah, impossible…if he tries that… I'll really kill him…._

„What's it?", she asked, trying to regain her mind.

_What the heck is wrong with me? I am close to death and all I seem to think about is sex? …wait a second…maybe that is not sooo wrong after all… _

„A note", he picked something up and held it in front of her nose. „Addressed to you".

The weapon fell out of her hand on the, luckily soft, carpet, she literally ripped the small white peace of paper from Alan's hand and started reading it.

_Antonia, _

_they came only halve an hour after you left. Two dark limousines, filled with employees of Dads business-partners. They told us that something happened in the city and it was no longer save. We only had minutes to pack some things. They swore that you were taken care of._

_I really hope you never have to read this lines, because that means they lied. _

_God help me, I just felt they were lying, but I had no choice, they never asked If we wanted to leave and Dad told me to obey them. I wonder what he knows…_

_Thus, I decided to write this, just in case you come home and look for us. If there really is something wrong in the city, we will come back and fetch you. Don't worry, I swear we will save you. _

_If we …can't make it, because of some reason, Dad says you should head for the police station or his bank. He said that there was a way to leave the city from there. He seemed sure you would find it. _

_Never forget that we love you, forever._

_Mom & Dad_

As she read her eyes filled with tears. The running started when she reached the eighth line and by the time she read _forever _she was crying like a little girl. She felt so sad and lonely and ….hateful. What did they think leaving her behind? If her father knew what was wrong why didn't he do anything? It was eating her up inside, she really started to hate them, even if she did not want to, those words on the paper were like all her life had been.

Her mother once again tried to pretend something she wasn't. Only this time it was her love, that she was faking.

She threw herself onto her bed, and covered her face in her hands.

„Abandoned you, didn't they?", that emotionless dick asked as unmoved as ever.

„Shut up!"

„That's how it is. In this world…"

„Shut up!!", she screamed between sobs.

„…you cannot put faith in anyone…"

„Shut your stinkin' trap!!!"

„…they will all turn on you."

Her sudden movement surprised herself. She grabbed the gun from the floor and aimed it right at Alan's face, her hand twitched, but she held it straight.

„Shut the hell up, or I will kill you."

„You can't ignore the truth. It doesn't matter if they are your parents or friends or lovers. They will turn on you for their own sake", he seemed not even slightly worried because of that gun at his forehead.

She grinded her teeth on another, breathing heavily. „What do you know, huh? You still have a family somewhere!!!"

An amused grin flashed over his lips: „Your wrong, I don't.… Those people…they mean nothing to me, and I mean nothing to them."

Her finger left the trigger, she let the weapon sink and took a long deep breath.

„Tell me", she said while she sunk against the wall next to her bed, hugging her legs and resting her head on her knees.

„Huh?", he not even seemed to be relieved that the weapon was out of his head, how could he act like that?

„I wanna know, wanna understand how you do this. How you shut out your feelings like that."

„Heh", he had a slight smirk on his lips, but his eyes still spoke of sadness and hurt. „If I tell you, you'll get nightmares and cry again."

He did not want to speak about it. That was obvious, there was no use threatening him. „Please, I need to know."

She pointed at the free space on her bed, right next to her.

With an annoyed sigh he sat down and leaned against the same wall as Toni.

„This story is a secret. I never told anyone about it, exactly like I was told."

„You're a secret agent, huh? C'mon…"

„No…not a secret agent….a killer.", he said in such an easy tone that Toni wasn't sure she understood him right. He didn't say _killer_, did he?

„What was that?", she gasped.

„If you really want to understand, then I should start from the beginning. That was ten years ago I presume. Cannot really remember it that well. I was in elementary then, I think somewhere near NY. I was a very violent child. Always looking for a fight, but always seeming to pick the wrong guys… got many major beatings."

„Doesn't sound that special to me…", Toni threw in.

That was the normal story of a child with a far to big mouth, which got his face punched in several times.

„Yeah, until I killed one of them."

Her heart skipped at least two beats. „You killed another kid when you were only eight?"

„He was eleven and I cannot remember if I really killed him or not. But he was at least severally hurt. Punched him till he stopped moving. He was the schools bully, wanted my food money."

She began to shiver. This story was definitely freaking her out and she would get nightmares.

„I understand…", she tried. Of course, if you had done such a thing you get separated from others. They fear you and hate you. He got lonely. No wonder he closed his feelings inside.

„You understand nothing. Story hasn't started, yet."

A cold shiver ran down her spine. What in all heavens could be worse then that?

„You know, there were many people in our hometown, who hated us for what I did. They were threatening us and the parents of that bully even sued us. My parents had no other choice as to leave. I never understood what was wrong, was too stupid."

He had his eyes pointed at one of her posters. But Toni wasn't sure if he was really seeing the two musicians on it or if he was seeing his past.

„Problem was, when you cross the line of punching someone half dead you lose pretty much all of your self-control. I had more fights and my parents finally decided to do something. Luckily a colleague of my father knew that the company had a special school, or you could call it a camp, for maladjusted kids like myself."

„A camp run by a firm? That is sure odd…those things are normally in state control, aren't they?"

„Exactly, and this is where my story starts. The day I entered the UCC, the Umbrella Correctional Compound."


	22. Chapter 21

-14)

Rick laid on the ground of his room, covered up in a futon. Ben snored silently near him, while Diana slept on his bed. She actually wanted them to sleep on the bed with her, it was big enough, but the boys had decided to leave it to her. Even though Rick was sure Ben would have liked to share the bed.

He himself was absolutely not in the mood for cuddling now. His mother really did piss him with her indifference and talk about a peaceful death.

There was no such thing. Death was always harsh and cruel and unfair. His father died in pain and so did thousands of people in Raccoon. It was selfish to wish for a painless death here. You had to try and fight, if not for yourself then for the people you love. That was what his father would have said, he was sure about that.

With a silent sigh he turned over, trying to get some sleep.

But there still remained the big question in his head. What kind of monster could make his mother freak out like that? She wasn't scared easy, but this time she was near a fucking panic. It had to be horrible.

He heard the steps on the floor even before the door opened a bit. „Rick? You still awake?", his mother whispered through the opening.

„Yeah", he whispered back.

„Come. I got something to tell you."

Rick had no idea what she wanted to talk about at this time, but… hell…tomorrow could be his last day on earth so he should take any opportunity.

Freeing himself from the futon he rose up and threw a quick gaze at Diana. She was hugging one of his pillows and seemingly slept quite well. But he was sure she had nightmares. The silent kind, which you can remember perfectly when your awake to live the horror of it again.

He turned around and walked through the door, his mother was waiting outside, another cigarette in her mouth.

„Its finally time", she said thoughtfully.

„What for?"

She took the cigarette from her mouth and held it with two finger. Some of the glowing ash fell on the floor, something she would never have done normally, but since the flat would be abandoned from tomorrow on anyway, it did not make a difference.

„You still remember that your father was a strong smoker?"

„Yeah."

„And me starting after his death?"

„Of course, tried to talk some sense in your head. But you refused to listen", he leaned against the wall on the opposite side of his mother.

She took another deep drag from her cigarette, then she reached for her pocket and took something from it. It reflected the weak moonlight and Rick knew what it was. An old Zippo-lighter, a thing she carried for a long time. It was decorated with Japanese symbols.

„This was a good-luck charm of your father. I took it after his death and started smoking to feel near to him, to, you know, carry on his legacy. I know that was stupid."

„It wasn't, I might have done the same."

„This lighter is now yours, consider it as a last gift of me", she said and threw the silver steel at her son.

Rick could catch it easily and looked at it. „Can't take it. And don't gimme that crap about a _last gift_. We are both leaving the city tomorrow."

He stretched the open hand at his mother, but she just smiled and closed his fingers around it.

„We're not yet done, Rick", she said and started to walk a few meters towards her own door. „That thing is only my last gift, but your father has one, too. I don't believe in destiny, but I couldn't think of a better time to give it to you."

She opened the door of her room and walked inside slowly. „When you came here I knew that it was a divine providence or something like that."

She opened her cupboard and took something from it. A long object covered in a red sheet.

„Your father gave this to me, shortly before his death. I had to swear to him that I would not give it to you until you fully understand what it is like to be a fighter and you accept your responsibility."

She held the object on both hands like an artifact, that had to be revealed.

„I think that time has come. Take it."

He did and directly felt the weight in his hands. It wasn't that heavy, but he began to know what he held there.

It took him only two seconds to remove the sheet and then he held it in his hand.

A sword.

A katana, with a grip and sheath of bamboo, which made it look almost like a stick, but Rick had seen it before. It was his fathers sword, the swords that was given from father to son in the Misamoto family for generations.

„Look at the blade!", his mother said.

Rick nodded slightly and pulled the sword up a few centimeters. He saw the glowing of the steel and understood what this blade meant. It was his fathers soul, now passed on to his son.

And then he saw the symbols. Japanese kanji, carved into the side of the blade. Rick took a close look and read it.

_From father to son_

_From fighter to fighter_

_From past to future _

_My heart will live on._

„I think he is still watching over you", his mother said while he took a new drag from her cigarette. „And he would be proud of you."

Rick felt his eyes getting wet. The memory of his father, how he thought him to handle a sword, to feel its soul. And now it was his duty to show him that he was strong enough to do it. With this sword he would protect anyone who needed him.

„Now get some sleep, you have to be strong tomorrow."

„Hai!", he didn't even notice he was using Japanese and quickly left the room.

He snuck into his room and a smiled hushed over his face. Ben had left his futon and was now lying on the bed with Diana. The two had cuddled together like lovers and Rick got the strong feeling that they would be before all this ended. He silently got into his futon again and shut his eyes.

Only a few meters away his mother was looking out of the window between two of the wooden boards, the only light in the room was the glowing tip of her cigarette.

„Now I did what I had to do. Tomorrow we will be united again, Kogoro."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Being back in the past really hurt.

Alan once again stood in front of the gate of the UCC Camp and felt nothing but fear, a nine-year old, ready to piss his pants.

That his father send him here was kind of dirty. He never even tried to do anything else but that. He was always ignored or, if his father had a good day, he would yell at him for a couple of hours. Thomas Riley really wasn't the candidate for _dad of the year_, but when he decided to send his son into this camp for five years, something inside of Alan died.

It was like the final pointer that his father had lost interest in him. He did not care what happened to his son anymore, and well… he still had a daughter.

Luckily in the coming month, Alan did not have enough time to even start hating his father.

The drill-instructors started very easy. Some physical education, strict rules and hard punishments for ignoring them. nothing special in a camp for the maladjusted.

But people should have gotten suspecting when some of the kids were send home after a few weeks and others weren't.

Alan was among the last group.

He later understood that those, who were send home did not have the qualifications needed. The first weeks were a mere test, a test of their characters.

The real thing started afterwards.

Alan quickly noticed that those, who were still with him all had something specific in common: The joy of violence. It was odd actually. Alan himself never enjoyed beating someone to a bloody hunk of flesh, it was more that he lost himself in a fight. Maybe that was the reason that the instructors got interested in him.

Anyway, the ways in the camp changed drastically.

Physical education turned into a military-like training and everyone who couldn't adjust had big problems. They were beaten, locked in for several days without food or water and some…well they just weren't around during the appeals in the morning.

The instructors put up fights of the kids against each other every day. No rules, the winner wins, the looser gets punished. It was as easy as that.

Alan lost only once, because the other kid had a broken arm from an earlier fight and Alan hesitated on going at him with full force. The kid thanked him by breaking Alan's nose and kicking his balls till he laid on the ground trembling.

The punishment for the loss was as brutal as it could be. The instructor stomped on Alan's hand and broke almost all of his fingers. The pain was incredible, the only nine year-old boy fainted immediately.

When he woke up in one of the dark cells, he knew what he had to do.

He could never again show mercy. To survive he had to fight. There was no one who would save him here and he really would die if he did not do what they wanted.

And still he had doubts. He knew he had no choice, but to fight when they said so, to win when they said so. But there was this voice in him that always kept a piece of his former self. That prevented him on becoming like the other kids.

They all turned into mindless zombies, who only obeyed without thinking. But Alan was different, he only shut out his feelings, not his brain. That way he was able to survive one month after another.

And the more he did what they wanted the more satisfied they got with him. Actually he became one of the best in his year. Maybe that was because of his innate tactical abilities, but on the other hand it could have been the fact that he was still using his head in the fights.

After three year in the camp he had adjusted completely, he was the best melee-fighters of his age and the instructors were proud of him.

That was the first time he felt that he had something like family. For someone with such a rotten family-life like himself it felt like paradise to be praised by the instructors, even if it was because he punched another kid halfway to hell.

Then after his twelfth birthday the training changed again. They were shooting at targets with real guns or using soft-air guns on fights in the near woods. The instructors gave them various kinds of weapons, from handgun till grenade the under-aged boys and girls were training with all of it.

Very quickly they separated the kids in different groups, based on their talents with the different weapons. Alan got into the magnum-group with only two others, a boy named Kyle, and a girl called Rayne. Those three were selected because of their ability to withstand the recoil of the Cold Python, they were training with. Many of the others even broke a bone when handling this weapon, but Alan and his group members could fire almost three bullets before they had to take a break.

Especially for Rayne, who was not muscular, this seemed like a miracle. From now on they trained in those groups and improved their abilities. Surprisingly Rayne and Kyle seemed to be very similar to Alan. They were not as stupid as the others in the camp and for the first time in his life he found something like friends.

His team was the best, and he was the best of them. He knew it and they knew it. After another year he could fire a six shots in a row with one hand. That even surprised the instructors, while Kyle and Rayne were admiring him for his skills.

They were in their own little world and they were having a really good time.

The targets were changing around that time. It were no longer those black figures with the markings on them but pictures of real people. Some with weapons others without. It made no difference, they were ordered to shoot, so they shot.

Alan no longer hesitated, there was nothing left that could make him hesitate, it really was normal to shoot and „kill" those paper-figures.

Then he got fourteen. Five years he had lived in this world and it all would be ending soon. The instructors said that they had nothing left to teach them.

And that was the time they all learned why they were in this camp. Everything they knew was wrong. They had never been here to loose their aggressions and become useful parts of society.

Thinking about all the training they did, it was surely stupid to even think that this was the truth, they were trained to be of use to the company, not society. They would be send back to their families and live normally until they were activated. They were killers, used to eliminate political or financial enemies of the company. No one would think a kid of their age being a killer, so they would never have trouble with their jobs.

It was a job full of honor, battle and blood, the only things that these kids had learned to enjoy. They never even thought of this being strange or wrong or a crime.

It was the only thing they knew.

But, they were not yet ready. The instructor explained that they never killed a real human before and they needed the experience of taking a life. Thus, there was one final test to pass.

The kids were all separated into their groups again. Kyle and Rayne did not think much about that final test. Like Alan they took all the others before easily, so nothing could really shock them…or so they thought.

Every kid got his favorite weapon and then they learned what they had to do.

A last fight, the members of the group were fighting each other till death, only the last man standing would leave the camp. Kyle and Rayne were the closest thing to friends Alan ever had and now he had to kill them to live.

Kill to live, live to kill…

He did not want to do it, he hesitated, something he never thought would happen again. The sudden pain in his arm was the reward for it. A magnum round drilled its way right through his biceps. He unbelievingly looked at Kyle, his Colts muzzle still smoking.

He looked at his friend coldly and aimed for Alan's head. Screaming something like _no choice _he fired another round. Alan reacted without thinking, without feeling, just like he had learned. His body jumped to the side, in the flight he changed the weapon to his left, unwounded, arm.

Kyle had been a good marksman, but he never reached Alan's level. He died from the first bullet leaving Alan's weapon. His head exploded when the high caliber pierced his forehead.

Rayne was a different story. She was agile and very quick.

She evaded three bullets and gazed Alan with one of her own at the head, before another bullet pierced her chest, probably her heart, and she collapsed.

Splattered in the blood of his friends he sank to his knees.

Once again he was all alone. The paradise he found here was lost.


	23. Chapter 22

-1Really I am sorry it's taking me so long, but I always want to improve the stories and that is taking a long time. Hope you can sympathize.

Anyway I love to read your reviews, so be sure to leave some, k?

Ah yes a question for some of you native-english speakers, I'd love to use a more colloquial way of speaking, especially for Alan, but I have no idea which words are useful for that purpose. If you could help me out with a few hints I'd be very thankful.

5)

The next morning came much quicker then anyone would have wanted. But if they had to die then Ben could at least say he spend the best night of his life before he entered heaven.

After Rick had left the room, Diana had talked to him. He doubted that Rick noticed they were both awake. Diana had trouble sleeping alone, not only because she was frightened, she just needed the warmth of someone next to her. Something real in this unreal world.

Ben gladly accepted. He liked the warm feeling of her body, the smoothness of her breasts at his arm. He knew he loved her, but he knew too, that this was only a feeling caused by these extreme circumstances. Diana and himself both survived together multiple times, a bond that was closer then family, closer then even the purest love.

When he snuck into the bed he knew that she was only wearing her underwear, white panties and a bra with lace and a long t-shirt. She never tried to hide from the boys.

And Ben, though pretty inexperienced, was a normal man, with a normal body. His blood quickly left his head and reached the position it thought it was needed.

Ben was embarrassed, because his manhood was touching her soft leg, but she just smiled warmly and pulled him even nearer.

Now, where he was standing at the door of the apartment-house, he wished himself back to that moment. Even though they did not do anything more then sleeping in that night, he wanted to stay alive and find out if there could be a future together with Diana.

„It's time", Rick said. Since the morning he had an odd stick in his hand. Made from bamboo apparently, but Ben was sure that there was something more about it. It was just the way Rick held it in his hand.

„When you hear the sound,…", his mother added, „…run like the devil's behind you. Because he is."

They all nodded, even though they had no idea what the sound was like, she seemed to be sure they would recognize it.

With pounding hearts they walked through the door, both Diana and himself with their weapons ready.

Sunlight felt good, it was better then the darkness of the night, but it was a fake. The whole scenery here was a fake. The empty streets, without zombies, blood and the stench of decomposing flesh. Somehow it was more horrible then the rest, because you were lured into believing that there was everything alright here.

The hell it was…

They ran along the houses of Flower Street, it was the only way to get to the RPD. They would reach it quicker then yesterday, because the daylight was better to spot dangers. Since the rendezvous was already tomorrow, they had to move. Ben hated the fact that they did not find Diana's father on the way, but it was good that they did not find him dead.

The stench returned, but it was still weak. At lest that way they knew they almost-

A noise stopped his thoughts, rapping very silently, slowly.

At first Ben mistook it with the pounding of his own heart, but it was too slow. Then he tried to classify it. It sounded like someone was hitting on a hard surface with a hammer, but no that wasn't correct. You could say it was silenced, like the hammer was covered in thick cloth.

His comrades heard it, too.

And the expression on the face of Rick's mother made Ben's sure that it was the sound she meant. The ultimate and pure panic. „RUN!!", she screamed terrified.

No one even thought about asking, they did what she said, they ran. But the sound was still there, behind them, following them. Then there was another of this noises, very close and apparently above.

The adrenaline in his veins gave him the strength to run, even though his body would have crumbled long ago.

_Above? Maybe another insect… _

Then he made the mistake of looking back. It was a reflex, but in the next second he wished he never did it. Even the sight of those things could give you a heart attack.

_Definitely no insect…_

It was …and his brain really had trouble wrapping around that…a spider!!

No, a bunch of them. About five or six. Every last one of the size of a big dog. Like they were taken directly from this movie of Alfred Hitchcock.

And they were fast, it would not take them much time to reach the group.

Ben felt his lung burning, his side ached, they wouldn't make it, the spiders were just to fast.

„These are only the small ones!!! Don't get distracted!!", Rick's mother shouted breathless.

Ben seemed to lose all his strength, like his soul was sucked out just by these two words.

_Small ones?… Those are already a hundred times bigger then they should be!!!_

The next thing he heard, or better, felt was a shaking in the ground. A shiver, like when a air hammer was working on it. Then another one and another.

He so did not want to know what was coming there, but his cursed curiosity won.

The view hit him like a gunshot.

His legs felt no longer weak, they just seemed to cease existence at all. He fell to his knees and looked at that thing, which Rick's mother had called a monster.

_monster…no demon…devil…_

He could no longer think clearly, the words danced in his brain, but they did not make any sense.

It was a spider, too. Maybe it was. But it was nearly as big as a big truck. At least two meters in height and five in length. His brain told him that a creature like that would collapse under its own weight, that was, until he saw that it had ten legs instead of eight.

His comrades pulled at his shoulder, he heard that Diana was shouting something, but he could not understand the words.

He knew that he was in shock. The view of that demon had been too much for him, he would die, eaten by them, like all the other people. Even the zombies. That was why there were none here.

„…en. Move!!!"

His conscious turned clearer, he heard her talking far away. He wanted to open his lips, to say that he was done, that they should save themselves while he was a bait, but it never came to that.

A figure appeared right in front of him, shielding him from the view of the spider-things. It was Rick's mother.

„You will now do what I say", she said strict, but calm. „Run, don't turn back. Just run. I am stopping these monsters."

Ben awoke from the words. His mind returned into his body. That woman really was ready to sacrifice herself for them, a noble deed that could not be ignored

But what chance did she have on stopping them? It would all be a waste… you'd need a rocket launcher to kill such a monster.

„Mom!! You're not staying behind. I said we would make it together and we will!!"

The spiders halved the distance in only these few seconds, but the small ones seemed to wait for the mother.

„You don't have time to play hero, Rick!!", she shouted and gave him a warm smile. „Some battles cannot be won, son. You know that, father taught you."

Her hand reaching for the zipper of her jacket, while Ben forced himself to his feet, he couldn't do anything but looking at Rick's mother. She was a normal woman, and yet would sacrifice herself to save her son and some people she did not know. He really wanted to know if every mother would be like that in such situation.

The monsters were only ten meters away when her jacket fell to the ground.

First Ben was sure that the shock was playing with his senses, but what he saw was real. The woman had a belt around her waist that entirely consisted of red rods. He knew what it looked like, but that was impossible.

_TNT…what the hell?…_

„Found that on the construction side in the first days. I knew it would be useful…", she said calmly. Her hand fetched one those disposable lighters from her pocket, while her other hand reached for a fuse at her chest that was connected to all the rods at once.

„Mom…you can't do that!! I am not allowing this!!"

She still smiled. „It's not your choice. I died long ago, along with Kogoro. Now I can be united with him again…. I love you Rick, I know you can make it out of the city. You're my and Kogoro's son, and no son of mine is gonna get zombie-food. You got me? Go now!!"

Without another word she turned around and faced the monsters. „Run already!!"

The spider were now only five meters in front of her. They stared at the living food with their monstrous eyes. Greed flashed in that shiny black of their eyeballs.

„MOM!! NO!!", Rick shouted while Diana, tried to pull him away. He fought against it, but Diana gave everything to move him.

Ben snatched Rick's other arm and both he and Diana ran, pulling the shouting and crying Rick backwards. They managed to move Rick ten meters when it happened.

An awful silence filled the air. The last thing Ben could hear was one word. The last word of this proud and loyal person. Her legacy.

„Live!!"

Then there was Armageddon, a noise like nothing else.

A wave of concentrated heat washed over them, like the flames were directly behind them. They were lifted into the air by a pressure-wave and thrown meters away. A rough landing almost made Ben hit his head and lose consciousness, but he had to stay awake.

„MOTHER!!!", Rick cried out loud.

The pain he had to feel must be incredible. Even though Ben thought that his parents were dead, he did not know it for sure. That was absolutely different from seeing your last remaining parent explode in a ball of fire.

But at least she really won. With this last act of unselfishness, she killed all the spiders. The only remains were greenish blood-pools and some pieces of meat.

Rick punched the ground, crying, shouting and begging to get her back.

It hurt him, to see this strong boy break down like that, Ben wanted to say that she was a true hero, but it seemed so pointless at the moment.

Still crying herself, Diana caught Rick's hand before he could hit the ground again and hugged him. She seemed to know better what he needed now.

As he watched both of them crying out their pain against the unreal harshness of this world, that would take your loved ones one by one, he understood that there was no way this could ever happen again. He would do whatever he could to prevent anyone from such a pain and whoever was responsible for this, be it a necromancer or whatever would pay.

Rick suddenly stopped crying and left Diana's hug. His eyes fixed on something on the ground, a small rectangular object. He crawled at it and picked it up. Diana followed his movements with her teary eyes.

Ben walked nearer to recognize the object.

It was a pack of cigarettes, the same ones Rick's mother had been smoking, and the package was burned at some places. Ben had no idea how it survived the explosion, but there was no doubt that it were her cigarettes.

„…might have done the same…", he whispered mysteriously and opened the pack. The cigarette between his fingers looked so …stupidly appropriate. He held it between index and middle finger.

Rick took a lighter from his pocket, an old Zippo and lit the cigarette with it. He placed it in his mouth calmly and took a drag.

When the smoke left his mouth it rose upwards into the morning air. Ben liked the idea that it accompanied his mother's soul on its way to heaven.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The night had already started, it was 2 AM, Alan's story took over three hours. He never talked about it, no one ever listened. Once he started he couldn't stop and the girl didn't interrupt him.

She was actually too silent, but he couldn't blame her.

„That is actually the reason why my family moved here, I think", Alan concluded his story.

„I was about to get my first target in Raccoon, but …well…this little apocalypse got in the way. Had no interest in fulfilling it anyway. I only want to live my own life. I appreciate what they taught me, but that's all. As soon as I can I am outta here."

A smile hushed over his face regardless of his will. „Well, now that this city is dead, Umbrella has me removed from their lists, I am officially dead for sure."

He turned over to the girl next to him, waiting for her reaction.

It was obviously fear, sickness and abhorrence at him. Yes, he was a killer, he wasn't proud on it, but that was what he was, he couldn't change that fact even if he wanted.

The ability to not feel anything had spared him from much grief. When he returned to his parents, now a young men, his father ignored him even more, he did not even say one word when the boy came back. That was when Alan started to hate him, not because he send his son to a camp for killer-training, but because of his ignorance. Alan had changed drastically, his whole behavior was calm and cold, but he did not notice. Alan simply ceased to exist in his fathers eyes.

Compared to this live in nonexistence, the camp was paradise.

When the firm told Thomas Riley that Alan was healed and now a normal boy, who could attend High School, he believed it without doubts. That guy always did what the Umbrella Corporation wanted of him, he did not even have the guts to ask why he was moved to this city.

In the terrible nights directly after he left the camp, he was haunted by nightmares of Kyle and Rayne and when it was unbearable he would stand up and walk into his parents bedroom with a pocketknife. He could not count how many times he had the knife at his father's throat and did not do it in the last years.

Well, that was all past now. His father was now a zombie somewhere and Alan could not feel the slightest grief about that fact.

„So…you satisfied now? Told you it was no story for you."

She still had her face hidden behind her legs, like she had in the last hours. The question was if she now was too frightened to say even one word or if she was thinking about a way to get rid of him already.

„…horrible…it's just horrible…", she whispered.

_Well…she is frightened, not surprising at all…_

Her head rose up slowly. She looked at him with big eyes. Tears streamed down her cheeks.

Now that was surprising.

„What's up…?", he asked confused.

„How is it possible…?", she asked sobbing. „How can they do this? It's so impossible."

…_that's how the world is, girl…_

„Don't dramatize it like this.", he replied and leaned back against the wall. His head hurt from all that thinking and reliving the past.

Her sobbing got harder. „Don't you do that now. I feel that it hurt you to talk about it. You did not lose your feelings, you just sealed them deeply inside yourself, because it hurt too much, right?"

„Bullshit…"

„You were forced to kill the only people you considered friends. That is more then anyone could ever stand. Living without real friends. Forever alone. I can't even dream of how hard it had to be", she sniffed deeply.

„You're a sensitive one, huh? Didn't think you were the cry-baby kind.", he teased.

God, she should just stop that. He did not give a damn about those feelings. Who would want to feel that weak?

He could feel it, he really could at the far end of his mind. Crawling its way up to the surface.

She was bringing it back. The pain and the memory.

Not that part which he told her, but the hours after he killed Kyle and Rayne.

The pieces of his memory that were buried very deep in his mind.

When he stood over the dead bodies of his friends, splattered in their blood, something happened. He had felt that pain she was talking about.

He had started to cry, crawl on the ground hit himself for what he did. It really hurt him. It hurt so much. Why did she have to remember him? He just wanted to forget.

The feeling of loneliness was so strong that he had thought to drown in it. He had no choice, he knew he could not live with those feelings. So he decided to do not. Like he shut out his feelings in the fights, he sealed his feelings at all.

He had learned the most important lesson of his life. Friends brought pain. He had no use for that anymore.

In his entire life he never wanted to feel anything anymore, feeling became equal to hurt…

But now she was bringing it back, his feelings and the pain.

„Don't you start to make fun of me now. I know you're feelings are still there. Let them out!!", she had stopped crying. Maybe playing with his head helped her forget about her own problems.

„You could never understand…", he said sharply. His headache was really bad by now, he clawed his hands into his hair. „…you don't know the pain…", he pressed out.

„Right,…", her voice took on a soft tone. „…but right at the moment I don't think that matters."

He heard her standing up from the bed. „My parents did abandon me like you said. Wrapping my brain 'round that really did hurt. I thought I had to seal my emotions like you did, but that's not how it works."

A rustling sound was heard, but Alan was too busy with his head to give it any attention.

„Good or bad. Our feelings are what makes us human. They tried to take them from you in that camp, but they couldn't. Now you have to accept them, but that does not mean you have to suffer for eternity."

Her words did not make sense. Those emotions were killing him.

„There are emotions that can make you forget the pain without you losing your feelings. You just have to let them in."

He raised his head and looked at her.

„In such a city, we both need each other to survive. Not only in the fights, we need to be together psychical and …physical…", her face had a soft red tone to it.

Her clothes were lying around on the ground. She was naked… and not a bad sight at all.

Breasts at the size of a good handful, not to big, not to small. A skin that looked like porcelain and an ass like a prefect apple. God, she was hot.

„We both need this, I think."

She walked closer to him and crawled on the bed again, on all fours she moved her face in front of his.

Alan, being not the typical man, did not think much about sex in the last years. He knew about its existence, but he wasn't sure he wanted to open for another human like that.

But it wasn't like she let him any choice now.

Her mouth found his and she pressed her body against him. It really did feel good, he couldn't say he did not like it.

When his hands reached for her breasts and touched her nipples she smiled. He felt that she was nervous, but she enjoyed it seemingly.

They had a good time exploring each others body. They tasted each other and kissed for hours.

When he finally entered and deflowered her, she did not even twitch, instead she moaned and screamed out her lust when he moved slowly, then faster.

And with every minute that passed the pain got more and more meaningless…

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The room was…well…exactly how you would expect a madman's office to look like.

Stuffed animal decorated the right wall, one of them being a big falcon with its wings spread, like it was ready to attack. A desk made from the most expensive wood, cherry-tree most likely, cupboards, a leather-armchair and a collection of the oldest bourbons on a sideboard.

The walls were decorated by many expensive pieces of art.

…_such a fool…he could just tell the papers that he is taking bribe from Umbrella…_

Chief Bryon Irons was a sociopath since his college-years, raped two younger students, violated his wife and often got into fights. Marcus did read those facts in this guys file once. Of course someone with such a file would never have become police chief, but he was perfect for Umbrellas use. They needed someone who would do everything for money and Irons was the perfect candidate.

Thus Umbrella did pull some strings and a committed and confessed rape lost its basis along with the victim. She apparently committed suicide. Case closed.

Marcus never understood how Umbrella could use such a man for such an important task as to guard the entrance to Umbrella's biggest lab in the city, he was usefully corrupt, but dangerously sick.

„Mister Masters. I really am delighted to see you.", the fat chief purred. Even hearing his voice made Marcus sick. He hated to be near this guy.

From the reports he knew that Irons had his private torture-dungeon in the RPD, the women he brought there were never seen again. The chief was crazy, but he wasn't stupid. He carefully choose those that would never be missed. Homeless-women and tourists mostly.

He really wasn't simply amoral, as the rest of Umbrella, he was really sick and that made him dangerous. The high-caliber in his hand made Marcus nervous.

_Why can't you be zombie-food by now? Couldn't you have at least that much decency to die quickly in this town? There really were more the enough in the RPD… _

Some of them had taken the rest of his ammunition on his way here. Luckily he knew the shortest way to get into Irons office and someone had been as nice as to leave an emergency ladder to the second floor. That really saved a lot of way for him. He had even encountered one of those mutated zombies, those with the long tongues. But it had luckily been sleeping.

„I am glad that you are still alive. It's not like that is an easy task around here."

His talk was unnecessary, useless. Just like the man himself. „I'm not here for talking. I need weapons and ammo. Then I'll leave."

„Oh, but of course. If you can find it, that is."

_What the hell…_

„Well, of course it is hidden. When your virus broke out I hid it, it's now spread all over the RPD. You can't let something that dangerous lie around."

Marcus was tempted to kill that fat guy right away.

„What kind of game are you playing?", he growled. He had three bullets left in his weapon and he really liked to place one of those in the brain of that bastard. But that would be a waste of a perfectly good bullet.

„A game? Yes, a most enjoyable one. So many policemen trying to desperately fight off the zombies and looking for the last bit of ammo. Shooting and killing each other for a single package of it."

…_definitely lost his mind now…_

His eyes had a mad shining, just like Birkin's had when he had been talking of his G-Virus. Madmen were all the same, obsessed with their own little world. Irons had always been thinking that the city was his, but that would not help him anymore.

„HEY!! LET ME OUT!!", a female voice from the second door in the room shouted, fists were hitting against the wood of it. If he remembered correctly that door led towards a room full of showcases with even more of Irons tasteless art.

„Who's that?", Marcus threw a downgrading view at the door.

„Oh, my little Emily. She is hiding from the monsters. I am taking care of her", he said smiling. It took Marcus not long to figure, who that was.

…_Emily Warren, huh?…I would not have thought that the major was as stupid as to give her to Irons. Well, not my problem._

But getting ammunition was. With three bullets he wouldn't make it around the next corner and he knew it. He really needed to stay here for a while to find some of the hidden bullets. Actually he did not have any time for that, but he had no choice…

„Ah, by the way Mister Masters. I just heard from one of my man that there are some real big guys running around. Might I suggest you don't come near them?"

…_my goddess is near…hopefully she rips you to shreds, damn bastard…_

The girl slammed against the door even more. Her desperate temperament somehow got Marcus interested.

He had met her on some official meetings with Major Warren, she was about his age, beautiful and sporty. Maybe she could be useful.

„I am taking the girl with me.", he said. Not asking, just stating the fact.

Irons smile vanished like it never existed. „You …what?"

„I am taking the girl, she will help me", Marcus said already thinking about the things he could accomplish. The clicking of Irons weapon brought him back to the present. „She is mine!!", the lunatic shouted. A Bullet hacked into the wall next to Marcus head.

…_dangerous moment…_

„Maybe we should make a deal, Irons", he said calmly.

The weapon pointed directly at his face and Marcus knew that this crazy bastard would pull the trigger. Of course that would mean his inevitable execution by Umbrella, but only if he would leave the city alive.

„I know that Umbrella is planning to evacuate some of the remaining VIPs. You probably missed that message. Or you weren't on the VIP-list to begin with. Whatever…"

The eyes of the fat chief changed. The hate and fear became interest and there was a glimpse of hope. Pathetic.

„…I could tell you where the point is. Could even make them take you aboard. And all I demand is that girl."

The chief seemed to think about it a while. He was crazy but still not ready to give up his unworthy life.

He lowered the weapon. „What are you gonna do to her?"

"She will assist me…", he said reaching for his pocket. His hand closing around the object he kept inside it. It was his treasure, the peak of everything he ever did. He took the small injection-gun and looked at it and its red filling.

The Ashfords had T-Veronica, Spencer's old partner Dr. Marcus had his Progenitor, Birkin his G-Virus and the this here was his obsession. Crimson-T.

Not a simple bio-weapon virus like T and G, no much more then that. When finally it would be perfect, he would use it on his own body and then rule the world. But until that time he needed a guinea pig.

With an uncontrollable smile he reached for the doorknob.


	24. Chapter 23

-16)

Rick changed since the explosion, his whole behaviour and attitude.

Not only that he started smoking, which would have been bad enough, no, he also got very hasty. He was almost running through the streets, as if he was still chased by those monstrous spiders. Diana even doubted that he was noticing the undead a long the streets. It definitely were more then before.

While in the first days there still were some humans running around, no one seemed to be left anymore. That was a really depressing thought, but her instinct told her she was right. It was like the city itself was dead.

At least watching Rick all the time was distracting her from that thought. He did no longer talk much, but instead of facing his grief he seemed to use it as fuel for his determination, it was stronger then ever before.

"We're almost there", Ben panted a few meters behind Diana. He looked pretty exhausted from the speed they were moving in. Luckily he was right, the RPD was just a few hundred meters as the crow flies. If there would not be any problems they would reach it in less then half an hour. Of course they could have been much quicker normally, but thanks to the many barricades on the streets they had to make one detour after another. That was why it was already early evening now.

Especially the main street was blocked by hundreds of wrecked cars by now. One of the first indication of the civilization's end was seemingly the collapse of traffic. Thinking about all the smog in the air Diana thought of this as the one good thing that this catastrophe had brought over the town.

A sudden noise got her attention. It was pretty silent at first, but then it got louder and louder.

She knew exactly what it was and a feeling, which she thought she had lost, came up.

Hope.

It was doubtlessly the sound of a rotor, the sound of an helicopter.

She stopped and looked up, just like the boys did. The copter flew right above their heads, the flashing lights were blinding, but still it was a great sight. Next to the lights there were three beautiful and heart-warming letters.

"RPD", Diana read out loud and sighed in relief. "The police is still there. We can…we will get out of here."

At first Diana wanted to get its awareness immediately, but then she understood that the pilot would never be able to see them, or at least tell them apart from the zombies. Their only choice was to follow it to the source, which was their destination anyway.

They looked at each other and then they ran, this time for real. They all gave everything they got and sprinted through the last streets towards the RPD.

It would take them only a few minutes at this speed to reach the one street that would lead them to the back entrance. They ran through an alley and finally landed right on the main street that circled around the RPD.

The thick stench of fuel filled the air, it was even stronger then the zombie-stench. Diana would not have had to turn her head to know that there was a crash behind her, but she did anyway.

It was really a huge crash. A gasoline truck crashed directly into a police car, there surely had been a monstrous explosion that none of the drivers could have survived. If they had still been alive when it happen that is. Actually Diana was pretty sure that the zombies could not drive, but a normal human might have tried to avoid the crash by braking.

Still she ran on, the back door was not far anymore and she had seen so many crashes that another one seemed so meaningless compared to that copter.

This specific one was now circling over the RPD.

_So close, we can make it!!!_

There finally was it. A metal door, durable but simple, They reached it just when the copter switched a searchlight on and aimed it right at the roof of the RPD.

_Something's there. If we make it there, we can escape!!!_

The sign next to the metal door told them that they were now entering the police parking lot and thank god the door wasn't locked.

Rick slammed it open, almost breaking the lock and dashed in as quick as he could, Diana and Ben followed behind. The adrenaline pumped like magma through her veins, but it was only thanks to that, that she could still run when her body would have collapsed long ago.

This parking lot was not really big, just a few yellow-marked spots with specific license-numbers on them, but there was a sign pointing to an underground car park.

Her eyes searched for stairs leading to the roof, but there weren't any, a simple wooden door to the left seemed to be the only way, except for a small cabin on the right, which obviously was a dead end.

"That way!!", she shouted while she was already sprinting for the door. The copter moved for and back, but seemingly he was waiting for something.

_Maybe he's seen us? Maybe he is waiting for us!!!_

Diana was the first at the door and was a bit surprised that it was only leaning in the frame. With her shoulder she pushed it open and almost fell into a small janitor room. She quickly checked for any zombies, noticed an old type-writer, some other junk and ran on to the next door. It wasn't completely closed, either. That was kind of odd.

They entered a small backyard, a narrow path, surrounded by grass and a few cheap flowers lead around a corner, because of which Diana could not see the rest of this yard.

_BLAM_

That was definitely a shot. It was such a familiar sound that she'd have recognized it anytime and it was very close, most likely around that corner. If they were really lucky, it was a police officer, but neither Diana nor any of the boys was stupid enough to just run around the corner unprepared.

They had encountered a few other survivors with weapons and some of them were totally out of their mind, shooting at everything moving.

Diana drew her weapon and quickly pressed herself against the wall. The boys followed her behind. Carefully she moved sideways towards the corner, her gun pointing upwards.

With a quick movement she jumped around the corner and pointed the weapon to the far end of the yard. The zombie immediately caught her attention, but it was already dead…really dead. It was lying on the path with his brain splattered all over the grass.

She quickly checked for more movement and found it to the right, she couldn't make it out completely, but there was someone moving upwards.

Some metal stairs started only two meters away and led directly to the roof the copter was flying above. The person was most likely a women, at least Diana was pretty sure that a boy would not have a pony-tail of this length, it was at least halve a meter long.

The only other feature Diana could see was a red vest, then the girl disappeared on the roof. Diana wanted to shout, but she realized that the copter was far to loud.

"Quick, we need to get upstairs!!", she said over her shoulder and pointed at the stairs, just in case the boys couldn't hear her, either.

They nodded quickly and started moving, just as…just as they heard another loud noise, much louder then the copter. Shots.

BLAM-M-M-M-M-M

It was a different sound then the other shot before, but Diana had heard that one before, too. An automatic rifle, just like Murphy's.

With horror she watched as the copter started moving awkwardly, shaking and twitching.

_No! Noo! NOOOOO!!_

But the copter did not listen to her prayers it crashed right into the roof and then pieces of metal and fire filled the air around her. Their way out of the city had exploded.

Diana sank to her knees, cursing herself for that damn hope she had felt…

_Why? Why is this city taking everyone and everything just to destroy it? What did I what did we all do wrong? It's not fair…_

A soft hand laid down on her shoulder. Her shivering was suppressed by a wave of warmth and a good feeling of having someone caring for you.

"We'll find another way", Ben said with a strong tone, that she never had heard from him before. "First we'll meet up with Toni and Alan, then we think of a new strategy."

_Hell…I really did forget about them…how…how could I? _

So she forgot about her best friend in life and almost abandoned her in this city. That was even harder to accept then the explosion of the copter. But she wanted to believe that it was only because that reckless thought of escape filled her entire head, not because she was damn bitch, that cared more for her own life then for anything else.

"We need to go now. Maybe those two are already waiting inside", Rick said calmly. "Knowing Alan, I say he cleaned that place already and collected a whole army."

Diana could not really see through Rick's tone of voice these days, but he sounded really like he was believing what he said.

Her own believe was pretty shattered by now.

"Yeah…", she said, "…sure."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Antonia Williams was really pissed.

Even the sight of the RPD in front of her could not make that anger fade away. While the building slowly rose up at the end of the street, herself and that damn bastard were running on, she remembered the morning of that day and felt a grumble in her stomach.

She had woken up pretty late and felt so much better then any day before. At first she did not know where she was, but there had been some facts that quickly remembered her of the last night.

First of all, she had been completely naked. Even in hottest summer she was always wearing at least underwear. Mostly because her father and mother used to come into her room when ever they felt like it.

The second thing had been that thin layer of sweat on her skin. She had been totally wet and really wanting a shower.

And finally there had been a naked boy lying right next to her. Alan.

He had seemingly still been sleeping and looked kind of satisfied, which was, thinking about the last night, not really surprising. After all he was the first boy that ever laid a finger on her, so he really should be satisfied for his own good.

Her memory now was kinda blur, but she remembered the most important parts. Starting from the moment that she stripped in front of him and went for him like a sex-hungry wildcat to the point where she had her first orgasm in life.

She remembered that she had given herself to him after that horrible story. But it was not just that she felt sorry for him. They really did need that short moment of being close, of feeling …well…happiness. It was necessary for her and for him to feel alive again.

It had nothing to do with love. In those extreme circumstances it had been the only form to make yourself feel better.

_Hell…who am I trying to convince here? I did it because I wanted to. zip…, _she thought while she was running next to that arrogant dick.

Actually that was anyway not the point of her thoughts, not the reason why she was angry.

She had been lying next to him for quite some time, watching him with a stupid smile in her face. What had she been thinking at that moment? That he would wake up, kiss her and tell her how much he loved her? Please, that was so ridiculous.

He hadn't even kissed her while they were doing it…at least not on the mouth…

Well, she had anyway waited, enjoyed watching him breathing in and out and had thought about that story he told her. She had been wondering at that time and was still, if he really told her the truth. It would be an excellent explanation for his skills and his cold behavior, but she did not like the background of that story.

He said that this camp was run by the Umbrella Corporation, which was exactly the company that not only was the main employer in this city, but also had a very close business with her father.

She could not even tell how many times she had to attend dinners with big shots like that William Birkin along with his wife and daughter. Damn, she even babysat that brat Sherry.

Umbrella was the source of all the wealth in this city, including her father's. Since they had come some years ago, many people made their luck by working for or with them. Thanks to that, they were now nearly sacrosanct here.

Even having thoughts like that could make you unemployed, Umbrella was a god here, they decided who the next mayor would be, they paid half of the police chiefs salary and only god knows what else they could do. Of course that was not something known by the population, but she knew by the way her father was talking of them.

And know there was this boy from another city, coming here and saying he was made a killer in Umbrella's private training camp. Could she really believe that? Would anyone believe that?

While she had still been thinking about that, Alan moved next to her. His eyes had suddenly opened and checked the surroundings, then he had looked at her.

"Morning", she had said. If she remembered correctly, her tone was the same as the one of the last evening, really sexy and passionate, one would call it. She had blown one strand out of her face and smiled. It was a stupid smile, she now was sure about it.

"We needa hurry", he had said calmly, not even slightly reacting to her. His eyes had been exactly like they were before. "We meet with Rick and the others today and it's quite a way to the RPD. Get dressed."

She had at first only looked at him with an open mouth, not really getting how he could forget everything that happened last night that easily. He had been acting exactly like he did before and she felt terribly hurt. Even though she did not even know what she had expected of him, she felt so …used. Like he had only taken her because there was no other girl in reach. Did it mean so little to him?

But she hadn't allowed herself to start crying, instead she stood up and slowly walked towards the bathroom. "Yeah,…", she had said, "…gimme ten minutes."

And now about five hours later, after she had taken a very long shower and changed into other clothes, he still hadn't said anything about it. They only talked about the most important stuff and even if Toni would have wanted to discus their short moment of happiness, she was sure that he did not. Okay, she really felt sorry for his horrible life, she could understand that he didn't like to talk about his feelings and she never thought that they would fall in love after this night, but couldn't he at least say that he …well…enjoyed it? That he really had felt great while taking her virginity?

She did not expect anymore then that, but she got absolutely nothing and that was shattering…

The main entrance-gate of the RPD appeared in front of them and additionally they could now see the main-street, or maybe the former main-street was more precise.

Only one or two weeks ago this street was crowded by people, some in cars, others on the sidewalk. They were taking their dogs out, walked to the shopping district or sat in one of the few coffee-shops. In the summer there were still kids who could persuade a grown-up to open one of the hydrants. They had so much fun dancing under the geyser-like water.

_Stop…don't think about that… _

Really, she should not start thinking about such depressing stuff. It was tough enough that they had to kill humans every now and then, but thinking about those young lives nearly made her cry.

The street now looked like a battle field, which it apparently had been not long ago.

Many wrecked police-cars stood in front of the RPD gate, some piling up and forming a barricade, others were lying upside-down. Zombies in uniforms were shuffling around, looking for more victims. Even a SWAT-truck was lying on the side and the officers were either zombies or half-eaten bodies.

They really had been naïve thinking that the police could fight these monsters back, those guys were overrun like the rest of the city.

Alan had been right again…and she hated him for it.

The walking dead already took notice of them, they had some kind of supernatural sense of smell, Toni had figured that some time ago. That was how they could track down anyone still alive.

"Come", Alan said harshly, while he headed for the gate already.

That was the first word he did say for about two hours and she really wanted to reply something fitting, but they needed to hurry if they wanted to get in, before the zombies could surround them. They were slow, but dangerous in number.

Luckily for them the gate wasn't locked, which was either a real sign of fortune herself, or every last police officer in there was dead and they couldn't close the gate in time. Toni tended to believe in the last one, thinking about this little battle field here.

The metal screeched awfully when Alan pushed it open and quickly jumped in. He checked left and right and then gave her a sign. One of those signs you see militaries use when they infiltrate an enemy base. He did tell her what they meant on the long walk yesterday, but she could no longer remember all of them, but she knew that this one was supposed to say: "all clear".

She followed him inside and quickly closed the gate, the lock was still intact, which meant that the zombies should not be able to enter. The principle of a door was to high for their dead brains.

The small place in front of the RPD building was a beautiful garden once, the city paid a lot of money to gardeners for cutting the hedges. Now it was dirty, blood was spiller over the green and even a bunch of bodies were hanging over the hedges.

_Just like all Raccoon turned into a perverted Halloween decoration…._, she thought bitterly.

Meanwhile Alan was already at the door and threw a quick view through one of the windows into the entrance hall.

"It's clear", he stated and opened one of the door's wings.

They both entered and really this hall was so exaggerated. Toni's father once said that the chief was totally into art. Something Toni did not believe before she first entered this building. Brian Irons had turned this hall into a joke.

The big marble statue on the fountain with that unicorn-medal at the front, the much too big reception-desk and the expensive clock. Hard to believe that the mayor really allowed Irons to spend all that money for decoration instead of crime fighting.

Well, as far as she was considered, neither Irons nor Warren were anything near competent, but what if there was more behind it? She had been suspicious since that day Irons claimed that the investigations on the cannibal murders was finished and everything was safe again.

She hadn't been with so many politicians and big shots in her life without learning how to recognize a lie.

And now all the town's people knew that he was lying that time, that they should have listened to the S.T.A.R.S., but it was now much too late. Irons suspended the only people who might have known the truth about all this. The question was: Why did he? The S.T.A.R.S. were Raccoon's finest, an absolute elite team, so why didn't he do something when they spread their knowledge of whatever they found out?

There had to be more behind this then the population knew, something really horrifying.

Once again she thought of Umbrella. Was there a possibility that the chief and the major were taking bribes to…well…cover up stuff like that killer-camp and maybe the stuff that the S.T.A.R.S. found out, the thing which started this disaster? If they really were controlling so many big shots here they really could do that and everything else.

_That is…that would be horrible…but it can't be…_

Still it was plausible and that deeply frightened her.

Her chain of thoughts was abruptly cut off by a horrible male humans scream from the outside.

"JILL HELPPPPPPPPPPPARGHHh….."

Toni rotated on the spot, reflexively she drew her gun and looked around. "What was that?"

"Shut up", Alan whispered harshly and pointed his weapon at the entrance door.

Yes, that was the direction that scream had been coming from.

He was already walking there carefully, while she checked her gun like Kendo had told her.

…_slide okay… magazine okay…fine…_

The slide clicked as she pulled it back and loaded the first bullet into the chamber, then she followed the idiot. He stood at the small windows which were placed into the door., he was starring out with an open mouth. This expression was so unsuitable for him, he did not even show surprise, let alone fear, when they encountered a bug as big as a Doberman, but now he was obviously terrified.

"What the…", he whispered breathless.

She actually did not want to know what on earth was horrible enough to make this guy shake in his boots, but her head moved on its own and turned to the second window.

The next moment she stumbled back and tried not to scream, she shook her head to clear it from that picture.

…_no!…that is not real…_

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Marcus Masters just found himself a new weapon.

But he wasn't referring to the revolver he found in one of the detective's desks, which came along with about thirty new bullets. No, that thing only was a nice bonus for the real weapon he did not expect to find at a place like this.

Emily Warren.

He only had to tell that stupid girl that he had a vaccine against the plague and she was almost begging him to shoot the Crimson-T into her vein.

She was really a beautiful girl with long curly blonde hair, her blue eyes had a sparkling glow and her body was really his taste if he would have had sexual desires like normal people. But in his eyes she was the perfect specimen for his dream. Her harmless appearance, which normally should remain, was perfect to use her as a secret assassin.

Even he could not fully foresee what her abilities could be after the virus would fully take effect, but he was eager to see it.

While he was slowly walking through the RPD, shooting a carrier sometimes, he could only praise his luck. Finding a specimen who was fitting the necessary requirements was normally not that difficult, but in this city it was now nearly impossible.

Like all high Umbrella-members he had access to all medical files from Raccoon's upper hundred, like Irons, Major Warren and their families. From those files he remembered that Emily had the right … "blood" for the virus.

She was anemic.

That meant her blood was not sufficiently transporting oxygen through her body, which caused hypoxia. Because of that Emily was a bit paler then normal and she couldn't do much sport, the file said she did collapse a few times in physical education.

Fact was that this illness did not make her life any better, until now.

For Crimson-T it was absolutely necessary.

The viral cells imitated red corpuscles when they enter the human body, then they quickly multiply and change the infected person's blood. But due to the increasing number of red blood cells, the amount of blood increased as well.

The only test Marcus was able to conduct before the city was finished was with one of the assistants in the lab. She was about 25, black haired, and beautiful like Emily. But she wasn't anemic and that had cost her her life.

When the virus started to develop the mutation started, the woman's veins exploded in her whole body, they couldn't handle the immense amount of blood.

She bleed to death in less then ten seconds.

Marcus had questioned himself for hours why the virus didn't work the way it should until he found the solution. The carrier for his lifework had to be anemic, only then it was possible for the infected to survive the changes in his body.

The problem was that when he figured that out the city was halfway dead already, even though he knew that there were approximately 37 anemic humans in this city he had no chance of getting one of them. And even if he did they were either dead or already infected with that ridiculous T-Virus.

Both conditions that disqualified them as carriers.

Thus, one can see that the chances of finding someone as perfect as Emily were pretty close to zero.

Now that he was armed again, he could fetch her from Irons office, where he left her sleeping and resume his way to the surgery lab, where an evacuation train was waiting for him.

Regarding Emily there only remained one thing to do once her body was fully infected by the virus, until then Crimson-T would stay in a kind of stasis.

But when finally its power would be awakened, she was more a goddess then Nemesis ever was.


	25. Chapter 24

-17)

_Holy fucking shit…_

Alan had seen many things these last few days, things that would have driven a man with a weaker spirit insane, but now…hell… he wasn't even sure if he was not going nuts already.

That thing out there was nothing like a zombie, it was about one and a half times bigger then a normal human, and surely of the same width.

It wore black cloths on every part of his body, except its head, which was very similar to the face of Freddie Krueger. Only that good old Freddie never had such an empty expression and not such teeth. Its only eye was just blank white and nothing in them made Alan believe that it was even using it.

Plus on top of all this there were these oversized teeth, on of those was as big as a shotgun shell and they were of a glowing white. With no lips existing in his face it looked like its was grinning all the time, even when it was growling something.

"Sssttaarrraass", the thing exclaimed loud enough for hearing it inside the station.

"We have to help. She will be killed", Toni, who unfortunately got rid of her paralysis said.

This "she" was a young women, maybe around 25, with a black mini-skirt and a blue tank-top. Her brown hair was dirty and indicated, that she was surviving in the city for quite some time.

_But now her luck's run out… _

Really, she was dodging that monster in a very professional manner, she might have been some kind of athletic or, which was more likely, she was with the city's SWAT, or whatever they had here. The way she handled her nine-millimeter was not botchy at all.

She fired one round after another into that monster, but it wasn't even slowing down.

"Come on, we have to do something!!", Toni repeated.

Two and a half days in hell and she still was playing hero, didn't she learn anything?

"No…we'll only die for nothing."

"Nothing? That is a human out there!! We have to help!!"

"Do you EVER think before acting? Did you count how many bullets she fired into that thing? No? Well, I did!! thirty-seven, girl. We don't nearly have that many rounds left and that thing is still fucking standing."

"But…", she started and then looked to the floor. She finally seemed to understand. At least until the next person in need was crying for help. There was no way she would ever stop being the do-gooder, but at least for now she would not get both of them killed.

"Look!!", she suddenly said and her face got even paler. He quickly looked through the window and saw the best thing that could have happened.

The monster in the black coat stumbled backwards holding his gigantic shoulder with his gigantic hand while several liters of a violet bloody fluid sprayed out of a seemingly big wound. It tripped over his own feet and then fell heavily to the ground.

Was it really dead? Alan could not believe in that, from the forty-one bullets that hit it, not one was effective until the last? That was unrealistic.

The women however did not seem to care checking if that thing was really dead, she only had eyes for a dead body lying next to the gate. It was guy in a yellow vest, maybe her lover of something.

His face, or what was left of it, was not a nice view, but the women only seemed to check the guys pockets until she found something and turned to the entrance.

"Hide!!", Alan ordered while already dragging the girl behind a pile of wooden boards, which had obviously been used for barricading.

"What are you doing? She is a human and good with the gun, she could help us", Toni contradicted.

"Yeah, likewise she could kill us to get our ammo and weapons. Believe it or not, not everyone in this city is a hero."

She seemed to want to reply another foolish thing, but he quickly covered her mouth with his hand when the door flew open. They quickly hid behind the boards.

The women ran inside and quickly passed the fountain on her way towards the reception-desk. While Alan slowly took his hand from Toni's mouth, the fact that she did not already bite his palm still surprising him, the women did something with the computer.

Carefully controlling his breathing, he watched the women hacking something into the keyboard until she seemingly was done and picked up her berretta.

He noticed how silently the women was moving through the lobby, how concentrated she was while checking her surroundings and he understood that she was obviously very well trained, even better then the average SWAT.

While she disappeared through a door, Alan really liked to know where she learned that stuff. She had to have done a training that was very similar to his own, maybe she was like him? Maybe from an earlier generation of the camp.

"She is with S.T.A.R.S., I just remembered the picture of the suspended S.T.A.R.S. that went through the papers when this cannibal-cult thing ended or …started you might say. She was on it."

"It sure seems your celebrities are better educated then those in the 'apple."

She looked at him puzzled, obviously not having the slightest idea of what he was talking about. "No celebrities, dumbass. S.T.A.R.S.! That's short for Special Tactics And Rescue Serv…", she paused for a second, "…you made a joke, didn't you?"

He did not reply anything while he started to walk towards the computer that the women had been using.

Her face lit up for a second. "You really made a joke just now, right?"

How happy she became just because she found this tiny bit of sarcasm in his speech, now she wouldn't stop teasing him with it.

"She looked into protected files, which you need a keycard for. But maybe we can find a map of this place in here. It's really huge and we can't trust that Rick will come here."

"Come on… say it. Say: "I made a joke and am proud of it", please."

He exhaled slowly, rubbing his eyes with index finger and thumb. "Enough, girl! We really have no time for your stupid acts, now help me find a goddamn…get down!!!"

Alan, a person who had not felt fear for a very long time, felt how all his blood left his face when he saw something coming at the entrance door.

The door was nearly pulverized when something broke through and stopped in front of the fountain. It was the black-clad monster the women had been fighting with and its eyes immediately locked on Alan and Toni.

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The girl was gone and the two cops, one in the seat of the helicopter and one under it, were both dead. Two more nameless victims burned to ashes in a steel coffin.

When the copter crashed into the roof it had directly hit a water tank, which ironically did not break, thus the fuel exploded and now half of the roof was burning like hell…literally.

Ben thought that it might be possible to break the tank and extinguish the fire, but it seemed rather pointless, since the department or any of the city wouldn't survive for much longer.

"We need to get inside, Alan and Toni are surely waiting…", Rick said calmly.

Diana was still kneeling in front of the fire, a very sad picture, that really made Ben want to hug her and tell her that everything was going to be alright. She surely had high hopes for that copter, and seeing it now destroyed was shattering.

Slowly walking at her, he placed his hand on her shoulder. "Diana?"

She did not look up, but she opened her mouth. "Yeah…they are waiting…", she whispered.

There was not even a bit of strength in her voice, which was really absurd. Days ago, he had been the little wimp and she'd been the self-assured idol of the girls, now their roles were changed.

While he helped her on her feet he decided, that never again he would allow anyone to hurt this girl, he never again wanted to see her suffer that much. She deserved to be happy.

"You see, once we find those two we'll leave and then everything's gonna be fine again", he silently whispered in her ear.

Her eyes looked up at him, they were glooming from a teary wetness. "You don't really believe that, do you?"

He tried to fake a smile and knew how much he failed at it. "Sure. Once we are out of here, we can start anew, in another city, attend a new school, go to colleague and live…"

She silenced him with a quick, still heavenly, kiss. "…happily ever after, huh? You're cute, Ben", she said afterwards and smiled back.

Ben stared at her with an open mouth, not sure if he was still awake or if he died in the explosion. She did just kiss him. She really did.

_Get a grip…she was desperate… she'd have kissed anyone…_

But somehow he knew that wasn't true. She was not the type who did such things. Maybe she could really start to like him, maybe they could really start a relationship?

A silent cough behind him made the dreaming boy return to reality, Rick stood behind him, the bamboo stick casually placed on his shoulder. "Don't want to disturb you lovebirds, but we should get inside. We'll attract the zombies here."

Ben immediately felt how his face started glowing red like a traffic light. "We are not…I mean…"

Diana giggled next to him before she walked to the door. "I guess he is right, we'll continue this later Ben", she gave him a big smile and Ben's heart felt lighter immediately. Seeing that she could still smile like that was so good.

"Alright…", Rick rolled his eyes, "…let's see what we got inside."

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Something was totally going wrong with her life.

Being the closest thing to a celebrity this city ever had, Emily Warren had always known to keep up a mask of total happiness. From her earliest youth she had learned how you had to behave in high society, how you had to look to help your father's election and of course how you could manipulate people, especially boys.

In exchange for her hard work she got everything a girl could wish for, she had a platinum credit card, a red sports car and was dating the captain of Raccoon High's football team. A guy called Sam, who was coincidently the son of another important family in Raccoon. He was a total idiot, but, as her father told her, it was profitable to bond with his family, even though she first had to break up that other relationship he had with…whatever her name was.

So, her life was perfect. At least until something went wrong with the city, just when Emily had been skipping classes with some friends in the mall. She had seen the greatest shoes on the planet just when those sick guys appeared.

They had been all stinky and ugly, and even before they attacked, Emily had been sure they meant trouble. While those freaks attacked her friends she had run away.

Out of the mall, out of the shopping district right towards the RPD. She had seen more of those man-eaters walking around, but she had somehow managed to avoid them. At that time it had still been save inside the RPD. The cops, who were also alive at that time, quickly brought her to the seemingly most safe place, Chief Irons' office.

She knew Irons for years, and even though she never liked him, she was glad to have someone with a gun as her personal guardian. Irons was very friendly, he said he would never let those zombies (that was the first time she had heard this word, but Irons was as nice as to explain it to her) lay a finger on her.

Of course the first thing she had done was call her dad in city hall, then at home. He wasn't answering, not even his mobile. Emily really got worried. With those "zombies" running around he could be in trouble.

Luckily, she had Irons to comfort her. He said that her father was most likely in a conference, in which he had always switched his mobile off. That really had explained a lot of things and Emily wanted to belief Irons. When he had offered her to stay for a while, she hadn't been suspicious.

She really trusted the big man and now she was locked in for that. He had lured her into a room next to his office, a room filled with expensive art and even armors, and before she could react he had closed the door and locked it tight.

When she asked why he did that, he would only answer that it was for her own best. What a crap!

She had had to stay in that armor-room for a whole day now. Luckily there was a small refrigerator in another room, which was filled with a few chocolate-bars. Really unhealthy stuff, but without them, she'd be starving already.

Thus she did the only thing she could do: Wait. That day was seemingly endless, but then there was this nice boy, that Marcus.

At first she had been distrustful, but then he told her that he would fetch her very soon and they would be going to where her father was. Even better, he had a medicine that would protect her from becoming sick like the others.

The problem that she was still locked in did not mean much to her anymore. Marcus promised to come right after he took care of something in the RPD until then she would wait.

Her knight would come.


	26. Chapter 25

-1Ah damn I hate to have you guys wait so long, but really I am in a bit of stress with university -stuff right now, actually I typed the following only last night. Additionally I had a small block, just no idea what should come next, but no I got some Ideas.

Anyway, hope you enjoy it.

8)

Given the choice, what would you do when facing a demon? Would you run, or would you fight and probably die? For Toni the answer only depended on whether you're an idiot or not.

Her heart pounded like it wanted to explode when she looked at that thing. That horrible black, huge and deformed creature.

Just judging from its size and especially the size of its muscles she knew that this monster could rip a human apart easily.

"SSSTTTTAAARRSSSSSS!!!", it growled deeply, its one eye starring into nothingness. Toni had no idea if it could really see with that, but it indeed seemed to look directly at her.

The monster was taking one step after another up the hall, passing the fountain, and coming nearer with each earthshaking step.

Alan looked around, his teeth pressed against each other, and finally his eyes fixed on something. "That way, quick!!", he ordered and grabbed her arm roughly.

Their destination was only about two meters away, an iron ladder, obviously it was some kind of an emergency ladder and someone left it extended for others in need.

_Which totally qualifies us right now…_

Silently she thanked whoever left this way open for them. "Get yer ass up there!!", Alan commanded and pushed her towards the ladder while he turned around and aimed his weapon at the monster.

Toni did not try to talkback, she knew that she was quicker then him and he would still have a few seconds until the demon would reach him. With desperate effort she climbed up the ladder quicker then anytime before. The growling of the monster got louder with every second passing, she still felt so slow, the second floor of the hall seemed so far away.

Maybe "second floor" was a bit exaggerated, the thing she was climbing to was more like a balcony-like way that lead from the door on the western wall to another one on the eastern wall.

"Sssstttaaarssssssss!!", the thing growled again, and Toni felt like he was standing directly behind her, her breathing got harder and finally she reached the edge of the second floor. She jumped up and turned around.

Alan was still standing down there, but…

_NOO!! _

The creature was only three meters from him, it just walked up the ramp next to the desk, while Alan still pointed his shotgun at it.

"Get up here now, you idiot!!", she shouted down and pulled her own weapon from her shorts.

"I'll keep him on distance, so hurry!!"

He grimly nodded and grabbed the ladder while Toni watched the monster, her Samurai Edge pointed at its big chest. She already knew that a zombie would not stop if you just shoot his chest or pierce his heart, but this thing might be different and even if the only way killing it was a headshot, she doubted she could hit it. Alan had shown her some tricks, but hitting a moving target was far more complicated then shooting a slow zombie.

It really was saver to aim for his chest and hit.

Alan was halfway up the ladder, a height that this thing surely could easily reach when it suddenly stopped. It…well…it stood right at the computer and seemed to look at it.

Seconds passed and Alan eventually reached the floor too. "What's it doing?", he asked, obviously wondering why he wasn't attacked .

"You tell me…", she gasped not sure what she was seeing. It was gross and still her eyes couldn't stop looking.

The monster stood at the computer and pointed one of his arms at it. A fleshy wet tentacle extended from its sleeve and moved over the keyboard, the mouse and the table, right there where the women had been standing.

"STARSSSS!!!", it suddenly shouted loud enough to make Toni's knee weak as pudding. She sank down trembling. The demon did not even think about the ladder, it turned from the computer and straightly walked at the door that the women had passed.

Toni finally understood the word it was trying to say, it normally only sounded like a simple growl, but…it was an actual word.

_S.T.A.R.S._

It had never been interested in herself or Alan, it was simply following the way that the woman went. It was after the Special Tactics and Rescue Squad like a machine that knew nothing but its mission. You couldn't fight something like that, you couldn't even run from it.

"This women will die, you know that, right?", Alan stated coldly.

She nodded slowly.

"And you know that there is nothing that we can do about it, right?"

She nodded again, even slower.

How much she hated to admit it, but he was right. The woman couldn't survive this hunt for long and no one could save her from this monster. It was time for her to face it…in this city there was no place for heroes. They were all dead already.

It felt terrible to just leave that woman to her fate and she was happy that it did, maybe this last bit of guilt she was feeling, was the only thing that distinguished her from Alan.

"Which way are we going?", he suddenly asked, breaking up her thoughts.

From a guided tour through the RPD, which she did in ninth grade, she remembered that the western door lead to a big library and from there you would at some point reach the S.T.A.R.S. office. Which obviously was the place where the woman was right now, thus they should not get near it.

The other door lead into a secretary's office and from there you would come to either the chief's office or a hallway that would eventually get you to the roof-heliport and the back entrance.

"East. There's a back entrance, maybe Diana, Rick and Ben used that one."

He nodded quickly and started walking.

Toni just hoped that they wouldn't meet Bryan Irons. If he really was part of some kind of conspiracy with Umbrella on the line, she'd rather have him dead. He was crazy, she had known that from that day in ninth grade when her whole class was invited into his office and he would look at each one, shake their hands and tell something about police-work.

But when Toni's and his eyes met she had seen right down into his soul. She had seen what was behind the face of "uncle" Bryan.

On the next day she learned that one of her classmates, a girl called Emma, did not arrive at home from school. The police immediately began searching for her, but they never found any trace. Even though she never found proof for it, Toni was sure that Irons took her somewhere and killed her. She was scared, scared enough to not tell anybody that she remembered him looking at the girl for much longer then he looked at anyone else in the room, that she had seen the glimpsing in his eyes. The same glimpse he had when he was talking about his

stuffed animals.

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When they first heard the screams, Rick wasn't really sure whether to ignore them or not. he had heard so many screams, so many people cry for help that it just sounded like a normal noise, like the traffic, which you get used to when living near a main street. You start to overhear it…

But still… since they already reached the RPD, which wasn't in a very good shape by the way, there was a possibility that Toni and Alan were with the one who was screaming.

The voice was silenced by a few walls, but it wasn't that far away, maybe directly in the room under their feet, if there was short cut they could make it in no time and it might be worth a try.

"Let's check it out", he said.

They quickly opened a door on the left wall, which had a sign with "emergency staircase" on it and were rewarded with fresh air. Rick's lungs were grateful for this small break from the decaying stench in the department, but he knew it wasn't for long.

Metal stairs led down to another door, the only other thing here were a few pots with herbs growing in them. He remembered that this herb was growing almost everywhere in the city, he could think of no reason to cultivate it in a pot, but someone sure knew why he did that.

Carefully he reached for the door, concentrating on any noise that might indicate an enemy attack, but he only heard someone shouting.

"Get away!! Go, damnit!!", a male voice screamed and then Rick could hear a shot, then another. it was obviously a human in there.

Holding his father's sword in his left hand he entered the room behind the door and quickly checked it. It was a small floor with a door on the other end and an opening to the left.

"DIE!!!", the voice said again and another shot echoed from the left, then an empty chamber clicked. Rick stormed forward into the room, which was, as he briefly noticed a office room with many desks. It was in quite a shabby condition, a pure chaos, which was another painful sign for the death of all cops here.

Next to the desks stood a brown-haired boy, about his age, he wore jeans and a white shirt, his face was not really an expression of fear but more of anger and hate. His eyes looked at the ground in front of him, where he still pointed his handgun. Rick reacted before he could see what ever the thing on the ground was. He ran around the desks and stormed towards the boy, his hand at the grip of his sword.

The boy looked at him surprised, his eyes opened wide, but he made the mistake of taking them from the thing that attacked him. Rick attacked in exactly this second.

Iaido, a high level sword-art that his father taught him. It sounded easy, basically it only meant to draw your sword from the sheath and attack in the same movement, that should increase your speed an destructive power by far. Well, Rick never thought he had to use that technique against an opponent ever, because its main purpose was to kill in one strike, but now he was very happy the he learned about it.

Whatever thing to his feet was, it just tried to stab the brown-haired boy with its very very long tongue. Rick was barely able to cut the thin long thing in mid-air and now it was lying on the ground wet an bloody. The boy jumped away and hid behind one of the tables.

The monster that was the original owner of the tongue squealed in pain, but it was still alive and now obviously pissed. It turned at Rick and now he could see that it was…well…nothing he had ever seen before. Its head mainly consisted of a visible brain and a mouth filled with sharp small teeth, there were no eyes. Its whole body had the color of muscle tissue and his arms (or maybe front legs) ended in thirty centimeter long claws.

Rick jumped a meter back and readied himself for the attack of that thing, he now let loose of his the sheath an grabbed the sword with both hands. The blade was light as a feather and there was not even a little sprinkle of blood from this tongue on it.

When the thing finally attacked Rick was ready. It jumped high into the air an tried to cut him to pieces with its claws, but when dicing was considered Rick was still a bit faster than it. His blade cut through that things torso like butter and made it split.

The two part fell to the ground and left another ugly pool of blood. Rick exhaled slowly to get his adrenaline down, then he picked his sheath up and inserted the sword.

Ben and Diana had watched the battle from a few meters away and they still looked at him like he was a demon. "Hell, how'd you do that?", Ben asked admiring.

"Spinach", he only replied and then turned to the place where the boy was hiding. "You're safe now. Come out."

The boy raised up and seemingly checked his saviors from head to feet. His face was surely not that of a damsel in distress being saved, he was suspicious, but that was not surprising. Most likely he lost his family and everyone else he knew.

"Who are you?", the boy asked with a small hint of a French accent in his voice.

"I'm Diana, this is Ben and our mighty swordsman is Rick." Diana introduced them friendly. She still had that tone of an class rep reporting to a teacher. Anyway the boy seemed to loosen up a bit. He now walked over the dead thing on the ground and stopped in front of the trio.

"Damn, you wouldn't believe how happy I am to find you guys. Now I might really have a chance to stay alive", his smile was faint but still visible.

"Well, don't worry anymore", Diana said in a comforting tone, "we stay together and will find a way out of the city. But considering I don't like to call ya "brown-haired guy", how about telling us your name?"

This time the boy smiled brighter. "Sure. I'm Marcus."

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Emily knew that her life was over now, she would die very soon.

Ten minutes ago, Brian Irons had given her a dress, a very old fashioned yellow thing and she had known from the first moment that something bad was about to happen, she'd seen it in the eyes of the chief. This dress would be the last thing she'd ever wear. After giving her the dress he had disappeared again and locked the door.

She had just hoped that Irons would only kill her, but she had expected something a lot worse. His eyes were filled with the lust that she has seen in so many boys eyes when she was wearing a short skirt or a tight shirt. He wanted her and he would most likely rape her once she left the room in this absurd dress. But did she have a choice? He was armed and she was only a weak girl, who knew nothing about self-defense.

Then she had remembered the can of pepper spray, which was fixed on her key-chain. While she had taken of her jeans and shirt off she quickly reached for her pocket and searched that damn can. It was much smaller then a normal one and the info-text said that it only had enough spray for two shots. Emily quickly slid it into the dresses pocket, put the thing on and looked at herself in a big mirror on the wall.

The dress had looked much better when she wore it, it really emphasized her great body, but the thought of what would be coming next had made her doubt, if she wanted to look as sexy as she did in this dress.

Now that all seemed so pointless. The smell of Irons sweat so close to her made her want to puke, but she could fight it down and tried to concentrate on those two people that pointed weapons at Irons and her.

This all had happened so quick that she did have no idea what was going on. Once she had stepped out of the room, she found Irons leaning against his office desk, a gun in his hand.

"Come here", he had said and Emily had needed all her strength not to cry.

"You know, Emily. You'll live." A false feeling of hope had aroused in her, but his next words crushed it quicker then it came.

"You'll live forever. I am quite an expert at preserving beauty, you see.", He had looked over his shoulder towards those stuffed animals on his wall and Emily started trembling. He wasn't horny like the other guys, he was just totally sick.

"Masters said I shouldn't touch you, but… hell…who cares about that Umbrella lackey, right? There power over the city is gone, now I'm in charge and I say what is happening. And you are one of the lucky ones that is going to share my power." Emily had felt so weak, but she had managed to stay on her feet. "Don't worry, sugar", Irons had told her smiling with such a sick expression that her knees started trembling and she felt one of the chocolate bars coming up her throat again. "It won't hurt. You just swallow this pill and then go to sleep until I awaken you as the ultimate beauty."

He had been holding a small blue capsule that obviously would have killed her, some poison most likely, and she had really thought hard about it. It was surely pretty painless and then she could go to heaven and get rid of all this terrible things that were happening here. Did she even care about what Irons did with her body after her death? Not really, still she had not felt ready to die. Fortunately she hadn't have to make a decision since those two people had entered the office. A boy and a girl, quite her own age. She even might have seen the girl at school before.

But that was irrelevant, since the first thing Irons did when he saw them was grabbing Emily and using her a living shield, while he pointed his weapon at the two and Emily knew that her death was near.

While she struggled in Irons grip and the two people looked at both of them with questioning eyes Irons finally started to talk. "What the hell are you doing here?"

His other hand still pointed the gun at those two.

The blonde boy glared at the chief and Emily was sure that he did not feel any fear. His hand was calm as he held that odd weapon with the blade. Some of the electric light reflected on it and dazzled her a second.

The girl, whose hair might have been dirty-blonde but was now more dirty then blonde, stepped forward and let her weapon sink.

_Don't do that he'll kill you, too…_, Emily thought and felt a bit of sympathy with the girl. She was as careless as herself when she came in here. "Calm down, chief. We are looking for help." Her eyes were as suspecting as those of the boy.

"Wait a second. Might you be Edward's daughter? That snot-nosed brat?", the chief asked and Emily had to think really hard to remember anyone by that name. Then she looked at the girl and knew who she was. It must have been because of the fear that she didn't recognize her already.

She was Edward Williams daughter, Antonia Williams, that banker her father was friends with. The guy with the Italian women. She had actually met Antonia before on some kind of celebration, but they never talked more then a polite "hello". Antonia always seemed to be annoyed by those banquettes.

This all seemed so far back now, but still she did not want Antonia to die, it was her duty to protect the cities people. She was the majors daughter after all.

"Yeah", Antonia said slowly, "We just wanna talk, okay?"

Irons breathing got quicker and Emily understood that he was planning on shooting Antonia and the boy as soon as the boy put his gun down. Slowly she reached for her pocket with the pepper-spray in it and wished that in this second Marcus, her knight, would come to save her, but she did not believe in miracles. Her hand closed around the can.

"Maybe you just let go of the major's daughter and then we all sit down and talk about all this", Antonia said comforting and Emily was a bit surprised that she was recognized.

Something in the chiefs mood changed, his grip got harder and it really hurt now, his breathing was short and quick. "Release her? She belongs to me!! I am her protector!!"

_The hell you are… _, Emily thought darkly and remembered his sick words of stuffing her like an animal. Her neck started to hurt and she could hardly breath anymore.

"Please, Bryan, let me go!!", she cried and struggled in his arm.

Antonia looked at both of them with horror, then her companion stepped to the front with his hand still pointing at Emily and Irons, his eyes made it very clear that he would shoot.

"Alright, bastard. Let her go now!!", the boy barked and Irons seemed to explode finally. Emily smelled some of his stinking breath and coughed loudly. His face was over her right shoulder now and the can in her left hand.

"She is mine, just like the rest of this city, how dare you demand anything from me?!", Irons shouted back and Emily felt salvia on her cheek. Then everything happened in slow motion.

From the angle of her right eye she saw the chief finger clench around the trigger of the pistol and she knew he would shoot. Her left arm moved up towards her right shoulder quicker then she ever thought she could move and the black can spit its burning content in the chiefs eyes from a distance of only two centimeters.

The chief yowled from the brutal pain that bit into his eyes. As far as Emily knew this stuff was one of the most painful things that you could do to someone. His arm loosened and she slipped from his grip as quick as she could. Without waiting a second she ran towards Antonia and that boy. Far away she heard the sound of a shot and saw that the boy was thrown back against the door, his arm was bleeding badly as he sank down on the wood, then she saw Antonia's widely opened mouth, she was screaming but Emily couldn't hear it. She briefly turned and looked for Irons, he was stumbling at some door on the back of the room, which wasn't there before, but his weapon was lying on the ground still smoking from the shot that…that…

_Wait a second… _

She stood in the way. The shot that hit the boy would have had to pass her to hit him, she stood in the line of the bullet. With horror she looked down and saw a blood red flower bloom on her dress, just where her belly was. When the time finally started to run back in normal time, she started to feel the pain. It wasn't bad, but there was this num feeling that spread out from the wound and she felt more blood running down her legs. Too much blood.

Antonia looked at her with pain in her eyes. "Hold still, everything's gonna be fine!!", she said while Emily felt her knees getting weak and then she sank down. Antonia grabbed her hand and squeezed it. "I am not that silly, you know…", Emily said and felt blood in her mouth. It tasted like licking a piece of iron.

"No, you're not silly, stay with me, okay?"

Suddenly she felt sleepy, Antonia's voice was really far away and she understood that it was time to go now. "If… you see… my father…tell him…I love him…and Antonia…take care….."

Then the sleep overwhelmed her and everything got black.


End file.
